LIEUTENANT Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said he and Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang will announce their decision regarding next year’s gubernatorial election “sooner than later,” adding that they will “most likely” run.
In an interview with reporters on Thursday, Palacios said he had a “little issue” with his health two years ago but is now “a healthy 65-year-old person…who can run this government.”
He said he has recovered from sciatica pain, thanks to a successful surgery in Arizona.
He is disappointed that some of his fellow Republicans are using his health issues to “rationalize” his exclusion from the GOP ticket.
There has been a lot of “soul-searching” among many members of the NMI Republican Party, he said, after Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’s office and residence in Nov. 2019, and now with the ongoing investigation conducted by the Democrat-led House of Representatives,
He said some Republicans “are scratching their heads” asking themselves “where do we go?” and “perhaps they are looking for alternatives.”
He noted that Mayor Apatang “is a very strong candidate and a lot of people have been calling us not just yesterday or today or the day before yesterday — people have been calling us since October.”
He added, “We will announce our decision sooner than later.” He said it is “most likely” that he and Apatang will run as an independent team — if they decide to be candidates.
Palacios said, “There are a lot of people not just in the party, but unfortunately also in the community who are disenchanted with how things are done in the administration party.”
The conversation
Palacios said several months before the 2020 midterm elections, the governor asked him about his political plan [for 2022]. “And I looked at him and asked, ‘what plan?’ My mind at the time was focused on how to continue to fix things to [reduce] the economic pains of the community. So I was really surprised [when the] question popped up. I asked him, ‘Why are you asking me? Why is that question coming up? The [midterm] elections are not even finished.’ And the governor said, ‘We need to plan ahead.’ So boom. My brain kicked in and I said, ‘Look, to be honest with you, I am not planning. I don’t have a political plan right now. But if you have a plan already, and you need to plan, I am not ready to do it, then go ahead and plan if I’m not in the picture and you believe you can find somebody [else], because I am going to go and address [my health] issue.’ That was the conversation between me and the governor. I didn’t have any immediate feeling…I thought he was just perplexing at the time. I never really thought much about it. I was focused on…really improving my health.”
Palacios said he was still in the U.S. when news came out that the governor was picking business executive Alex Sablan as his new running mate.
“But when that was dispelled, [one of my] strong supporters called me up and asked, ‘What’s going on?’ ”
In retrospect, Palacios said, “I think I became…an inconvenience to a lot of folks in the government.”
He added, “The fact of the matter is that I am an inconvenience both politically and professionally…. Maybe I just have a different way of thinking. Maybe I am a fiscally conservative person.”
He said what makes it more challenging is that “a lot of people in government are used to just…spend and they don’t care. In the past 20 years [or so], that seems to be the norm and, unfortunately, we keep doing that. We keep going through that cycle. So one of the first things I raised when I sat down with the governor is that we can’t continue doing this. I made a commitment when we were campaigning [in the 2018 elections] that we were going to fix things. And even if it’s painful, we need to fix it. And that didn’t go well with a lot of people, particularly the department heads who are used to being [given] free rein.”
Regarding the federal infrastructure money the CNMI has received, “I hope we can pull it off — I really do not just ponder hiring people here and there and all that, because if we can’t pull this off because of political expediencies and political issues, then we are going to be right back to where we started.”
He noted that he no longer got an opportunity to join in the decision-making in the last three months. “I don’t know if that is coincidence or that is purposeful,” he added.
‘The fix was in’
Palacios recalled that when he got back on island after his successful surgery, he felt “really good, invigorated and happy.”
But then, he added, the governor “asked me to give him his ‘blessing,’ so I gave him my blessing to go ahead and run with somebody else.”
He said he had sensed that “the fix was in for me” — “I was being taken out.”
Palacios also expressed disappointment with Republican Party President James Ada’s statement that he, Palacios, cannot run for governor on the GOP slate because the party has also nominated the governor as its candidate in 2022.
Palacios said, “That was news to a lot of people…. In all my experiences with the GOP, whether in elective office or as a supporter, whenever the party proposed changes to any of the rules or protocols, especially the party by-laws, we called for a general membership meeting first and the general membership would ratify the proposed changes.”
Palacios said, “Unfortunately, this time, I don’t remember the party calling for a general membership meeting to ratify changes to the bylaws.”
He noted that in 2005, then-Republican Gov. Juan N. Babauta was re-nominated by the party which, for the first time in its history, did not hold a gubernatorial primary.
Palacios said the GOP split in that year, and lost in the general elections.
He said in 2013, when then-Gov. Eloy Inos decided to dissolve the Covenant Party and re-join the Republican Party, the GOP “had a membership meeting and we all voted to [approve the merger]…. That was how the Republican Party was, and why it has always been a strong party throughout the many decades [of CNMI history].”
Now, however, the rules have been changed “with only five people running the show.”
He added, “You need to be very transparent. You need to [let] the members [decide] because…the strength of the party [lies with the members.]”
So now, he said, “I guess [I will] either run as an independent or create another party which is a huge challenge….”
But he said he will not join the Democratic Party which, he added, will have its own candidate.
As for the question of “when I am going to announce my candidacy — pinning the date is very difficult because a lot of things have to happen, a lot of structure has to be in place. So I can’t give you a date.”
Palacios said he doesn’t want to burn bridges, “but if I have to burn a bridge, I’ll burn a bridge. At this point in time, the option [to run] is probably getting stronger as we speak because of all the things that are happening in the party.”
Governor Torres’s running-mate in next year’s elections is Senate Floor Leader Vinnie F. Sablan a former independent who recently joined the GOP.
Arnold I. Palacios