“As an attorney, you serve one client at a time and you can affect his life directly. As a legislator or as an elected official, you must think in broad policies because you can affect people’s lives in a wholesale fashion,” he said.
“I can do both. Not a lot of people can switch gears and be an elected official or policymaker and be a lawyer,” added Camacho who is licensed to practice law in both local and federal courts, including the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
Camacho, who holds a master’s degree in public administration, also worked as an educator at Northern Marianas College before he entered politics.
“In my younger skinny days I was a police officer too,” he said in jest.
Following his first term of office as House lawmaker, Camacho returned into private law practice.
He is busy these days representing mostly indigent clients through the court-appointed system in both the local and federal courts.
In the 2009 general elections, Camacho, then a Republican, did not seek reelection and instead agreed to be the running mate of Independent gubernatorial candidate Juan T. Guerrero.
They finished third in the four-way race and in the runoff, Camacho supported the Covenant ticket of Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos.
Last year, Camacho ran as the ruling Covenant Party’s congressional candidate, but he lost to Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, his cousin whom he supported in the 2008 election.
Although he remains non-committal if he will run for public office again, Camacho said his political career is not yet over.
For now he said he enjoys being a lawyer.
“This is a non-election year. Let’s enjoy this year first,” he said.
