“Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others. ”
― Jacob M. Braude
THE then-three-year-old CNMI held its second gubernatorial election 41 years ago. It was also the Commonwealth’s first three-way gubernatorial race. In 1981, the incumbent Democratic governor was running as a third-party candidate against a Democratic senator and the Republican Senate president.
(Trivia: There have been 5 two-way gubernatorial elections in CNMI history [1977 (won by a Democrat), 1985 (Republican), 1989 (Republican), 1993 (Democrat), 2018 (Republican)]; 4 four-way [2001 (Republican), 2005 (Covenant), 2009 (Covenant), 2014 (Republican)]; and 3 three-way [1981 (Republican), 1997 (Republican), 2022 (?)].)
On Oct. 13, 1981, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and KSAI radio station hosted a three-cornered gubernatorial debate “enlivened by jibes as well as humor,” according to Marianas Variety. The candidates were asked about “pornography, a trip to Hong Kong, [pay] raises [for] Senate employees, deficits, gambling, financing of the retirement system and leadership ability.” During the debate, the candidates were allowed to ask their opponents two questions each. The stage was thus set for what Variety called a “verbal storm.”
The Democrat and Republican “stressed economic development, improvements to the water situation, need to encourage industry, training for local people and elimination of waste….” For his part, the then-governor said “he was proud of his record in bringing physical improvements, and increasing employment, federal money and local tax revenue.”
In other words, the candidates made the usual campaign talk that voters had heard before, and would hear again, and again, in subsequent election years.
But the discussion became “sharper” once the candidates started asking each other questions. The Republican candidate asked the then-governor about deficits and questionable contracts. The then-governor said the real deficit was in the Senate whose employees had not been paid for three pay days. As for the supposed questionable contracts, he said they were approved by department heads. The Republican candidate then asked his Democratic opponent, “You fully supported [this] administration for three years. Now you refer to it as a mess. What took you so long?” The Democrat told the Republican, “As a leader of the Democratic Party that put [the then-governor] in, I really regret it. To pay back the people we owe for that, you and I are running.” According to Variety, this “joking remark was greeted with laughter from the audience of more than 100…at the Inter-Continental Hotel.” (Inter-Continental became Dai Ichi which became Fiesta which is now Crowne Plaza.)
In a campaign ad, the Democratic candidate told voters, “Like many of you, I do not like what we have gone through in the last four years. [D]espite millions of Covenant funds, federal grants and local revenues, we have run a deficit…which if…left unpaid or to accumulate will force future governments to raise taxes or…bankrupt our government.”
The then-governor in his campaign ad accused his Republican opponent of “playing Santa Claus at taxpayers’ expense.” The governor said for the “protection of public funds and public interest,” voters should re-elect him. His third-party’s campaign slogan was “Common People United.”
As for the Republicans, they told voters that it was, “Time for a Change and a New Beginning,” adding that they were “The Candidates of the People, for the People, and by the People” who would work together “for a Harmonious, Efficient, and Honest Government.”
In an editorial, Variety noted that it’s “really wonderful how quickly the water problems on Saipan are going to be solved if you believe the campaign rhetoric…. Perhaps the simplest solution to Saipan’s water problem would be to hold an election every six months or so. That way the voters would have an ideal way to measure which campaign promises are being carried out.”
Ten gubernatorial elections later…
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