Possible Clues:

• One with ambition given snake to train, curiously
• Wanting to get the job, I declaim violently after the serpent
• Hopeful, like religious sermon?
• Hopeful one
• Stingers entertain Irish candidate
• Partisan may be person with ambition
• The serpent is so trying that I go on about it
• Ambitious reform in Sparta
• Wannabe star - pain to manage
• Partisan assembly produces a candidate