Asked for comment, Sablan’s camp said the governor is showing his complete disregard for the law by issuing another political attack press release on government stationery.
Fitial in a statement yesterday said it is “very sad” for the CNMI people that after finally having a seat in the U.S. Congress, “this is what our people have to hear, that we sent a follower and not a leader.”
Fitial is supporting the candidacy of former Rep. Joseph N. Camacho, who is with the ruling party.
The Covenant Party during its gathering yesterday passed out a printout from a U.S. congressional tracking group website, GovTrack.us.
It is an independent, non-partisan, and open-source website whose primary goal is to “provide comprehensive legislative tracking for everyday citizens by embracing the power of technology.”
Fitial said the GovTrack.us report noted that “Sablan tends to co-sponsor the bills of other members of Congress who do not co-sponsor his own bills.”
The governor claims that Sablan’s failure to enlist any co-sponsor “is a clear reflection of his inability to work well with other members of the Congress.”
Sablan, the governor added, has sponsored 20 bills since Jan 6, 2009 — 17 haven’t made it out of committee and none were successfully enacted.
Sablan co-sponsored 230 bills during the same period.
Fitial said the CNMI has been “very fortunate” to have been assisted by the delegates from Guam and American Samoa “each time that our own delegate short-changed our people.”
According to the governor, the people deserve a higher standard of representation in the nation’s capital.
“It is an injustice to everyone in the commonwealth to know that our representative to the U.S. Congress is being classified as a follower. It is no wonder why the forthcoming election is a four-way race; three other candidates have stepped forward because they, too, believe that the CNMI deserves more than just a follower,” said Fitial, who ran for governor three times in a four-way race: in 2001, 2005 and 2009.
He lost in a landslide in 2001 and won by 84 votes in 2005.
In 2009, he placed second in the general elections — eight votes behind the Republican candidate, Rep. Heinz S. Hofschneider.
But Fitial topped the runoff by 370 votes — a winning margin of 2.8 percentage points.
The CNMI’s first delegate election two years ago was a nine-way race.
The Gov.Track.us Website, moreover, indicated that the people Fitial mentioned to be a good examples of leadership actually ranked lower than Sablan.
163 other U.S. congressmen can be branded as more of a “follower” than Sablan himself. They include Democrat Norman Dicks of Washington, chairman of the Defense Appropriation Committee and Democrat Nick Rahall of West Virginia, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee.
The website also indicated that Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo is ranked much lower than Sablan.
According to the Sablan camp, it appears that the governor “clearly believes that the commonwealth government belongs to him.”
“But people are tired of the takeover of our government by the governor and his Covenant Party,” Sablan’s camp added.
“Do we want the Covenant Party candidate who cannot even speak for himself, but is only a ‘follower’ of the governor?”
According to the Sablan camp, “Voters have seen what the Covenant Party produces: payless paydays and a failed economy.
“Voters have seen what Kilili produces: millions and millions of dollars for education, CIP, and health care.
“The choice could not be more clear.
“We want to keep what works. We want the leadership and performance of Kilili in Congress.”
