I WAS simply amazed to see the Democratic executive committee decide to abandon Senator Crisostimo, especially when he is the highest ranking Democrat in office and there are only two others in office.
Common sense tells me this is a choice made by a “handful of people” that haven’t given any consideration to the ramifications and to what the people want, especially when it comes to an incumbent official. Parties with common sense don’t “reject” an incumbent official without a “run off.” If anything, the party did the senator an injustice by “rejecting” him when he was the ONLY legitimate Democrat that wanted to run for governor, but the Democratic Party chose a person who previously “rejected” the party to start his own — what a joke.
I’m sure anyone with common sense can see the Democratic Party is “splitting hairs” in the favor of the powers that be on the executive committee.
To complain about something so petty as to say he “hugged” Babauta at a political function tells everyone with common sense that this rejection of the senator is “personal” and not professional.
Common sense tells me the Democratic Party should have been begging the senator to run for office instead of rejecting him, especially when he never abandoned the party and split the party like the previous gubernatorial candidate of the Democrats — it makes anyone with common sense go hummmmmm.
I was raised a Democrat, but it is because of politics like this that I’m not a member of any party. But I am a voter, and with all due respect to the executive committee of the Democratic Party, I expected more from the Democrats this time around. The committee is figuratively shooting the party in the foot, just like the Republicans. At a time when the people need as much political “cohesion and synergy” that can be mustered, the Democrats are dividing and running voters away form their own party. The Democrats rejected their best candidate for re-election at a time when you can count the number of elected Democrats on one hand — what were they thinking !
First, the Democratic Party split with the formation of the now defunct Reform Party and then the Republican Party disintegrated into three parties (Republicans, Covenant, Independent), which divided the people even more and now the Democrats are going to extend the mess some more but who suffers? We (the People) suffer because our leaders are TOOOOO divided to get anything with a significant challenge resolved like (wages and labor) — PLENTY of resolutions and cost-cutting when we need NEW MONEY and hard core REFORMS.
As long as our politicians are divided into four and five different “political camps” so will the people be divided and the chances of us becoming one people, with common goals and headed in the same direction will be lost to the politics of our many parties instead of real solutions for our community — its common sense. We (the people) need a sound two-party system with an end to all this “infighting” within the parties that is a big inhibitor to improving our political process for legislation and leadership in the CNMI.

AMBROSE M. BENNETT
Kagman, Saipan