Del Benson
BUSINESSMAN Del Benson said he wants to help the Commonwealth create “a productive business environment where we can all prosper.”
Benson announced on Saturday that he is running for one of the six House seats in Precinct 3 as an “Independent-Republican.”
The 65-year-old marketing and advertising entrepreneur who has been living in the CNMI since 1991 said he is not running for the sake of popularity. He said he wants to have a positive influence on the island.
He raised all his four sons here. “This is where they all grew up, this is their home,” he said. And during all those years, he has been in business although he also worked for the government as a teacher.
He was among those who put up La Mode Isla more than 30 years ago. He brought The Curve, a women’s fitness club, to the island, and was in real estate for a long time. He taught at Marianas High School and became a professional photographer. But he said photography is now “a lost art in many ways due to continuously advancing technology.”
Benson said he will file his candidacy once the Commonwealth Election Commission announces that it is already accepting petitions of candidacy on Saipan.
Right now, he said, he is collecting signatures for his nomination. People can visit his website, https://delbenson.site/, for more information.
“I also need people who are willing to help,” he said. “I’m not asking for donations. I want to avoid that. We get soaked upside down because of money and that’s one of the reasons I decided I do not want be linked to a person.”
He would like people to invite him to a town hall where community members in the villages can come together, ask him questions and share their own inputs.
He wants to connect with the voters and wants them to be comfortable with him as “we work on the Commonwealth to create a productive business environment where we can all prosper.”
Benson said he doesn’t support the tax and fee increases that the administration and House members are proposing.
“You don’t tax your way to wealth. You don’t regulate yourself to wealth. We need freedom from that. Freedom to make decisions in running our businesses,” he said.
He said when the government tries to get a piece of anything, it throws in regulations and taxes. “Those increased fees and taxes that businesses have to pay are obviously not a decision made by the businessperson who now has to waste his time and has his accountant worry about going to Rev & Tax to pay taxes. … What a waste. And that’s because the government needs all the money it can get because they don’t cut back. They spend. Why do they spend? For votes,” Benson said.
“Here, the government is not by the people for the people. The government is by the politicians and for the politicians,” he added.
As a local entrepreneur, he has to be engaged in politics because “I’ve seen it’s not going anywhere.”
Seeing the Commonwealth in tough times, he has continuously talked with people about it, and has now decided to “try to do something about it.”
He said if he wins in November but proves to be an ineffective lawmaker, he wouldn’t run again.
He is also looking for other “like-minded people that look beyond a name and a job, and prestige and power and all that — someone who asks, ‘What can we do?’ ”
Benson said, “We are limited to so much of what we can do” in the CNMI, but “we can attract businesses.” But, he asked, how would the CNMI attract businesses if its government makes it difficult for them to make money?
Benson said there are still businesses that “put up with” onerous laws because they care about the island to which they have personal connections. “But what do we do with them? We burn them,” he added.
He said the government has to make the Commonwealth business-friendly, but just recently, the government imposed, among other things, a $10-a-day late fee for late submission of an annual report.
“That’s criminal,” he said. “Repeal it.”
Regarding the job of a legislator in introducing bills, Benson said, “Here’s my argument: Do we need it?”
He said it appears that some lawmakers introduce or co-sponsor bills because it makes them feel like they’re doing something.
He wishes to see a House or Senate session during which not a single bill is introduced. To him, that would be a more productive legislative session.
He said, stable countries that have thriving businesses don’t pass a lot of legislation. “They are consistent. Businesses want consistency. They don’t want to, all of sudden, find out that their tax bill has jumped up because the government needs more money and the government won’t use its own restraint and … get … rid of duplicative agencies.”
