They are basically mutual support groups for politicians who join parties based on their personal needs or convenience.
The head of the party is usually the choice of the incumbent governor or, if the party is out of power, by its gubernatorial candidate. Parties rally behind candidates and not platforms which are indistinguishable from one another. Everyone’s for education, tourism, the economy, public safety, public health — more this, more that. CNMI politics cannot be compared to national or even state politics. What the commonwealth has is small-town politics, where the personal is extremely political.
Parties are after power, and they want it so they can distribute the immense resources controlled by the government to their favored supporters, including businesses, of course. This system has so far resisted change because the CNMI’s main industry, contrary to popular belief, is not tourism but government. Government employees are the primary constituents of elected officials. Hence, now and then, even though a politician will point out the obvious, which is the need to cut the size of government, he knows he cannot win elections if he’s true to his word. If he walks the talk he will be a one-term official. And for every politician who promises real reforms, there are 10 others assuring voters — i.e., government employees and their relatives — that the current system is sustainable and that the good ol’ days can happen again. Nobody would want to elect anyone who promises to cut good paying, piece-a-cake jobs.
All this serves as the backdrop for the governor’s recent “hijacking” of the supposed opposition party, the GOP. (“Hijacking,” incidentally, involves force or the threat of force. The victim does not roll out the red carpet for the hijacker as was the case with the Republicans who welcomed back Uncle Ben like a conquering hero. Strictly speaking, what happened to the GOP was not “hijacking,” but the consummation of a deal between political hos and the mack daddy who has cornered the market.)
Once the governor re-joined the GOP early this year, he practically owned it. The deal was sealed through government jobs and contracts awarded to high-profile Republicans, including those who had been critical of the governor in the past as well as those who had been his election opponents.
In politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies; only permanent interests. And it is now in the interest of these politicos to band together.
As the highest elected “Republican” official, Uncle Ben is also the party’s titular head. Why did he want to become its president, too? So he could be one of the local GOP delegates to the U.S. Republican convention next year? What for?
The governor, to be sure, wants to be the kingmaker in the next gubernatorial election, but that’s still a long way off. Next year, voters will choose legislators, but whatever their affiliations, those elected will have to find common ground with the governor until 2014.
Clearly, then, the governor is after the biggest, juiciest prize in the 2012 polls: the U.S. congressional delegate seat.
I don’t know, however, what other lie or demagoguery they can still use against Kilili who continues not only to say the right things, but to do what is right within the limitations imposed by the current political landscapes in D.C. and the CNMI. Moreover, unlike the financially challenged politicians in the CNMI who have to kowtow before the governor, Kilili has his own power base. And like the governor, he knows how to win elections.
Only a complete toady who doesn’t mind losing an election would run against him next year. But even that lackey would not run unless the governor promises adequate “support” pre- and post-election day.
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