Tenorio said if the governor is realigning with the Republican Party “then, I think it’s natural to assume that there should be some changes here in the House. I have to step down.”
He said he wants to remain with the Covenant Party but if it is joining the GOP, then “I’m out.”
The merger, he added, will create a supermajority in the House. “Therefore, I’m out of the picture,” he said.
Benavente, the GOP frontrunner for the 2014 elections, does not like to see the Republicans accepting Fitial “with open arms” because the party will tie itself to the problems the governor has created.
Benavente said when the merger plan was discussed by GOP leaders on Tuesday last week, he told his party mates he did not agree that it was something that should be done right away.
He suggested that the matter should be brought up to the general membership before the GOP makes a decision. It should be up to the general membership, he said.
“I also cautioned the leadership that the people are frustrated with this administration. There is the ailing economy, there are the payless paydays and reduction of salary,” Benavente said as he also recalled the governor’s failed promises to revive the economy and to reduce the utility rate.
With the majority of the CNMI people experiencing very tough times, Benavente said he doesn’t see why the GOP leaders would want to join a party that caused the frustrations the public is experiencing now.
Benavente said he and his minority bloc colleagues can take over the House leadership but it will not be because of the merger with the ruling party.
He said he is not one of those who are taking advantage of this merger proposal for personal interest.
He believes that his bloc now has “10 solid votes” in the 20-member House and more members will join them, he added, because of their frustrations with the current leadership.
“There’s nothing you can do about people wanting to be members of a party,” the former lt. governor said.
If the governor now wants to call himself a Republican and will start showing up at party gatherings, he will be allowed to do so, Benavente said.
But no Republican can be proud about having the governor back, he added.
Benavente said people who supported the GOP in past elections lost their jobs under the Covenant administration.
“What do we say to them?” he asked.
A former Republican National Committee member, Norman Tenorio, said he finds nothing wrong with Covenant Party officials wanting to join the GOP.
“That’s how politics works. It is part of the game,” he said.
But he admitted that the planned merger will be more beneficial to the Covenant Party than to the local GOP which is affiliated with the national Republicans.
Tenorio noted that the U.S. Republican Party will run the U.S. House of Representatives beginning in January.
The CNMI, he said, needs to get support from Washington, otherwise, “nothing is going to happen out here.”
He added, “When you are in Washington and you’ll say you are a Covenant Party member, nobody there knows what the Covenant Party is. But when you say you are a Republican, you have clout.”
But Speaker Tenorio, a former governor and Washington representative, does not believe it is necessary to affiliate with the U.S. House leadership.
“I don’t think the U.S. Congress looks at us whether we are members of the Covenant Party, the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. They treat us like an entity. If one thing is good for us, they’ll give it to us. If it is not good for us, they won’t give it to us and that is regardless of our political affiliations,” the speaker said.
Besides, he added, “we don’t have any power or influence in the U.S. Congress” no matter which political party the CNMI delegate belongs to.
All the territories get federal assistance based on their populations and not whether their governors are Republicans or Democrats, the speaker said.
Although he believes in the principles of the U.S. Republican Party, Speaker Tenorio said these do not matter in the CNMI political arena.
