The Commitments

Blog polls are not scientific, in part because the people who respond to them are self-selected, and may not be representative of the community at large. Still, a couple of recent polls conducted on this blog and Glend558 may be worth looking at.

The poll on Glend558 asks: “Will you support a candidate in the next election if they support Fitial filing a lawsuit against the federal government?” The poll was conducted in response to the CNMI Legislature’s resolution to support the governor’s lawsuit (it has been referred to committee, where it will probably die a slow death). The results of the poll are astounding. As of today, 85.3% of those who responded say they would not support any candidate who supported the governor’s plan to sue the federal government.

This site’s poll asks whether people think Fitial could win a lawsuit challenging the federalization of immigration and labor, and fully 70% have responded “Fat chance.”

Numerous posts on this site and others have focused on the drawbacks of filing suit against the feds, and the seeming lack of any legal merit to it. There are many arguments against filing. A lawsuit will make it uncertain, perhaps for several years, whether foreign investors will be allowed into the CNMI, and whether employers will have access to foreign workers. Not knowing who’s in charge or what the rules will be will discourage private investment. Many have also pointed out that we should be working with the Department of Homeland Security to help draft the regulations to implement the new federal law, so we can get regulations that are favorable to our economy. A lawsuit will limit the degree of cooperation between the local government and the feds, and likely result in less favorable consideration.

Other posters have pointed out that the government can’t afford the cost of litigation, which the Fitial Administration has said will be $50,000 a month, and most believe there is little or no chance that the CNMI would win.

Fitial cannot even argue that the new law will harm the CNMI until the regulations are drafted and about to go into effect on June 1, 2009, only about six months before a new governor is inaugurated. Whoever the new governor is could withdraw the previous governor’s lawsuit, just as Fitial did with Babauta’s lawsuit to claim our cover-over money from the feds.

So here is the question: would you be more inclined or less inclined to support a candidate for governor who publicly committed to the following statement:

If I am elected governor, my first official act will be to withdraw any lawsuit filed against the federal government over the federalization of immigration in the CNMI.

A five-year term for Fitial?

There are talks about making the local elections coincide with elections in the states, Saipan Tribune reports today.

This means that, at some point--and that point could be soon--elected officials would either have their term in power cut short by one year or, more likely, get one bonus year in office.

Could we be in for two and a half more years of Ben and Tim?

Ben Again?

Is Fitial's decision to seek re-election good news?

What's Life After Government Office?

This has been going on in my feeble mind about the staff of government officials or lawmakers that didn't make the cut in the recent election? For the lawmakers there are still much ahead of them in terms of finding alternative work after losing the election. They have always been resilient in these types of situation, but how about their staff?

I remember one of these staff used to have a more stable work also in a government agency but when his political candidate friend won the 2005 election, he was asked to join the lawmaker's team.

So, the incumbents lost. Where are they going to go now? Of course there's always alternative to that. However, what if some of the staff want to still work for the government but their names have been attached to their former bosses?

Oh well....

Poll: Will Tina Make It or Not?

Our new poll asks whether you think Tina Sablan will make it to the top 6 in her precinct when the absentee ballots are finally counted. She is on a neck-and-neck battle with Janet Maratita and Cinta Kaipat.

So what do you think? What went wrong and right on the result of her votes?

<-----Cast your votes now!

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Poll Results:

Our last poll about NMC's shutting down of Tinian and Rota instructional sites:

75 percent of the votes said Yes and should've been decided a long time ago.
12.5 percent said no.
12.5 percent of the voters were surprised to learn that there are other campuses on the two islands.

The Reveler

Election Giveaway

Tacder and I were doing our rounds during the election last Saturday and we saw one supporter here in one of the public schools on Saipan giving away a betel nut bags to voters after they voted in that precinct.
ZZZzzzzzz....

Below is not a photo of a homicide or something to that effect, but this is a photo taken during election counting where a spectator couldn't control any further and slept a bit during the counting while waiting for the announcements....

Election Kudos Et Al

We on Middle Road would like to say "good luck" to our friends that are running for a seat at the House of Representatives: Tina Sablan, Rep. Cinta Kaipat, Rep. A. Waki and Brad Ruszala.

Liquor ban is effective tomorrow from 7am to 7pm until voting on polling places ends. So in other words no drinking while voting. ;-) If you are caught intoxicated while voting your votes won't be counted. Kidding. Just make sure you don't see double while voting. ;-)

Also, no political ads are allowed during election day. The ads include on print and broadcast media. So, sorry Nahal, your ad is banned too (smiles)

Caught in the Boycott

Saipan Chamber of Commerce was terribly disappointed the other night when its first election forum was deliberately boycotted by some candidates running for House seats. SCC president expressed his disappointment and wondered why they didn't show up. Apparently he was aware of the buzz around the island that the precinct 3 candidates would boycott the forum because of what he wrote on the paper about the SCC's disappointment with the Legislature's overriding of the Gov. veto on CUC bill.

SCC president said it was the position of the SCC and the current members of the Legislature especially those that are seeking re-election did not consult or seek advice from the Chamber.

"If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen," he said.

Rush Hour (4)

Rush Hour. Nope, not the film of martial arts great Jackie Chan and the blabber mouth Chris Tucker. It's the film of the CNMI's beloved lawmakers.

News is that tis the season for vetoes up at the Capital Hill. Yes. This is the season for vetoes. Up there are x's and no's for the dear governor with all the bills that have been passed at the Legislature. The reason for our recent post about the bill that passed yet vetoed by the governor regarding CUC bills to be paid within the year.

There are indeed a lot of bills that are now being introduced up at the Legislature by the current congressmen and women albeit the "absurdity" of the bills. Community's guess is that these lawmakers would introduce bills how silly it may seem so that the public would recognize their names attached to the bills. "They know more or less that these bills are going to be vetoed but they don't care as long as the public would know that they [congress people] introduced it." They aim to project an image that would say they are people oriented, thus would win the votes.

Makes sense though. Public recognition is of utmost importance this time of year--election season.

Governor race is on for Angelo, Cinta and Heinz

Yup, the blogging people (130pax) of the CNMI and the world have spoken and ranked Angelo Villagomez (40%), Rep. Cinta Kaipat (29.2%), and Rep. Heinz Hofschneider (24.6%) to be the next gubernatorial bets in the next election.

Happy now Angelo, at least here you've won something. Harry is not a governor material anyway. Let's just leave him to be the spice of the island--Le Critique.

Mike Sablan (15.4%) surprised me the best. Hmmm...could it be possibly, inevitably...
Former Gov. Babauta still gets the nod with 11.5 percent of the votes followed by Rep. Estanislao Torres, yes that's his real first name, with 9.2 percent.

The Tres Amigos, Rep. Waki, Rep. Babauta and the Juanpan each got 6.2 percent of the votes.

Well, happy with the outcome?

Watch for our new poll!

Cheers and Jeers

It’s not so much about the $200,000 that the government would be able to save per year if all the 42 elected officials and members of the judiciary voluntarily take a 10 percent cut in their salaries, as reported by Marianas Variety. (What is $200,000 a year versus the $150,000 that the Fitial administration will be paying a mining consultant in connection with the selling of Pagan’s volcanic ash, other independent contractors and political hires?)

It’s more of sharing the burden in these tough economic times.

A government employee who earns $13,000 a year gets a 10 percent cut in his salary, while a lawmaker who earns close to $40,000 a year is not exempted from the cut, thanks to Public Law 15-24 or the austerity Friday law. Members of the CNMI Supreme Court and Superior Court, who earn much more than $13,000 or the close to $40,000 by lawmakers, also don’t get pay cuts.

How could top elected officials expect lower paid government employees and the community at large to believe in them if they don’t lead by example? During the last elections, these leaders promised to work for the people and with the people but are now singing a different tune.

Public Auditor Mike Sablan, as quoted by Marianas Variety, said it well: “The voluntary acceptance of a 10 percent reduction by all elected officials and members of the judiciary would serve as a morale booster and encourage employees throughout the government to be more supportive and understanding of their forced reduction in pay.”

But of course, there is a separation of powers. The executive branch can’t tell the legislative branch or the judiciary branch what to do in these tough economic times. They already know what to do…right?

Election fever

You know it's nearing election when political party members start bickering with each other. Take the Republican Party, for example. We haven't heard from the Democratic Party. By the way, is there still a Covenant Party?