“I feel good. Now, I can be a proud Republican governor,” Fitial said, reiterating that he has always been a member of the national GOP and annually pays his dues.
The governor on Friday met behind closed doors with lawmakers at the Saipan World Resort to discuss the government’s worsening financial situation and ways to address it. The meeting started at past 11 a.m. and ended before 5 p.m. No one among them explained why they had to spend public funds on a meeting to discuss the government’s lack of money.
Fitial, who was the only one willing to be interviewed by the media after the meeting, said the ruling Covenant Party, which he founded, will remain in existence.
Republican lawmakers are opposed to a merger of the parties, but Fitial said he will encourage other Covenant Party members to join the GOP anyway.
“Nothing will change in the Covenant Party until we get everybody together,” he added.
The party will elect its new officers next month and will decide its next course of action, he added.
Variety learned that Fitial’s cabinet members will submit their own letters of intent to join the GOP during a gathering at his residence scheduled at 6 p.m. Friday night. Fitial said his cabinet members organized the get-together.
In a separate interview before the governor’s summit with lawmakers, NMI Republican Party Chairman Juan I. Tenorio said they held a meeting on Wednesday to form an executive committee.
The GOP board then adopted a resolution that gives the executive committee full responsibility regarding party membership.
Fitial submitted his letter of intent to join the GOP on the same day.
“After years of public service to our people and community with most of these years as a loyal member and leader of the NMI Republican Party, I hereby submit this letter of intention to once again join the political party I helped organized. I am a Republican and I will faithfully and vigorously support the principles of the Republican Party and abide by its rules,” Fitial said in his letter.
Tenorio said the GOP by-laws do not “discriminate,” adding that it is the party’s job to bring in new members.
According to Tenorio, the party’s executive committee has to begin discussing the membership issue in preparation for the 2012 delegate and midterm elections.
“So as chairman of this party, it is my job to create this committee early so we can have two years to strengthen the party and ensure that the party’s next candidate for delegate will win in 2012,” he added.
Tenorio said Fitial’s rejoining the party does not make the governor the GOP’s titular head.
“I remain the head of the party, elected at-large,” Tenorio added.
The governor will be just another party member, he said.
John “Liling” Reyes, who was elected chairman of the executive committee, said “they voted to have the governor re-admitted to the party.”
He said the GOP leadership, through the executive committee, can decide on this matter. The party by-laws, he added, do not require a general assembly meeting when accepting new members.
According to Reyes, the governor has “clout” in the national GOP and it is important that Fitial returns to the local party so he can bring up CNMI concerns to the new Republican leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Tenorio and Reyes, who are former Democrats, served in the cabinet of then-Gov. Juan N. Babauta, the GOP’s losing delegate candidate who supported Fitial in the 2009 elections.
Covenant Party Rep. Raymond D. Palacios of Saipan said even without the governor as head of their party, the Covenant bloc in the House will remain intact — at least until the 2012 midterm elections.
He expects his partymates seeking reelection to join either the GOP or the Democratic Party or run as independent candidates.
But the big question right now, Palacios said, is: “Who is willing to run the Covenant Party?”
Speaker Froilan C. Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, earlier said he would not follow the governor in joining the GOP. Tenorio, a former Democrat, did not attend the governor’s summit with lawmakers on Friday.
Vice Speaker Felicidad T. Ogumoro of Saipan said she will remain a Covenant Party member until the party gets together and decide what to do.
“Right now, my work is to turn things around for the CNMI. I decided to run under the Covenant Party and I will continue to work closely with the governor,” said Ogumoro who is also a former Democrat.
Founded by Fitial, a former GOP chairman, in 2001, the Covenant Party eventually replaced the Democratic Party as one of the CNMI’s two major political groups.
