By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

GEARING up for a new round of court battle, former Congressman Robert A. Underwood and his running mate former Sen. Frank B. Aguon Jr. are raising funds that they will use to defray the cost of litigation at the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I continue the struggle to bring clarity to our election laws. The Camacho-Cruz camp doesn’t want the law clarified,” Underwood said, reacting to the Republican team’s move to challenge the Democrats’ petition for clarification of the results of the 2006 gubernatorial election.
Underwood said Gov. Felix P. Camacho and Lt. Gov. Mike Cruz are attempting to “keep the Supreme Court from making a decision on the interpretation of the Organic Act’s requirement that all votes should be counted and that the winning gubernatorial team must receive a majority of votes cast.”
“This is disappointing and we vow to continue this effort to follow the law. We need your help,” said Underwood, who has hired Paul M. Smith, a high-powered Washington, D.C. lawyer, to handle the petition.
The Underwood-Aguon team is holding a dinner reception at the Micronesian Room of the Guam Hilton on April 26. Tickets are sold at $75 each.
Tony Charfauros, chairman of the Guam Democratic Party, meanwhile urged the legal community to support the Underwood-Aguon team’s plea, maintaining that the legal question raised in the petition is likely to resurface in the future.
“It is important that we get the final word now,” Charfauros said. “It is ironic that Felix Camacho pursued this case vigorously to count blank ballots in 1998 and fought for years to count non-existent votes. Today, he refuses to support the counting of votes that were clearly cast.”
Camacho’s attorney, David Mair, filed a brief Tuesday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss Underwood’s petition, saying the issues presented by the defeated Democratic candidate have long been settled and do not warrant any reexamination.
In December last year, the Guam Supreme Court upheld the Republican victory, agreeing with the Guam Election Commission’s decision to throw out 504 overvotes. The court held that the 504 voters who “overvoted” did not express their will in deciding who should be the next governor and lieutenant governor.
Charfauros maintained that the so-called “overvotes” should be counted as part of the majority that is required to win.
“The counting of ‘overvotes’ and ‘write-ins’ have always been part of the majority. This case is important because we all know that a similar situation will come up in the future and it is likely that a case will be filed in the future,” the party chairman said.
“In the name of democracy, we should clarify now the appropriate ways to determine the 50 percent-plus-one majority that is required by the Organic Act,” he added.