Quibble
POLITICIANS, more often than not, say the darndest things. Recently one of them stated that the “will of the people…elected a new majority leadership in the House in 2020….”
Politicians usually call voters “the people” although not everyone is a voter, and nonvoters are also people at least according to biology. Moreover, when politicians invoke “the will of the people,” they usually refer to voters who supported said politicians.
In the 2020 election, the Democrats won eight of the 20 House seats while the Republicans retained nine of their 13 seats in an election year that was supposed to be very bad for the party in power as the economy was in tatters and many voters had lost their jobs or were furloughed because of the Covid-19 restrictions. Three House independents were also elected — two were aligned with the Democrats, one with the Republicans. The result was a 10-10 deadlock in the House that was “resolved” only because one Republican switched sides (while claiming that he was still a Republican and would serve as his party’s “contact” in the House leadership to help push Republican bills. Politicians…darndest things).
The 2020 Saipan Senate race was close — the Democrat edged her Republican rival, 51%-49%, a winning margin of just 248 votes with over 10,000 valid votes cast and counted.
As for the more recent Precinct 3 House special election, the Democrat (who, incidentally, is now an independent) won in a landslide, garnering 60% of the 2,025 valid votes cast and counted. But there are over 17,000 registered CNMI voters, according to the election commission, and some may find it hard to believe that 1,217 Precinct 3 voters or 6.8% of the total number of registered voters had made a CNMI-wide decision on behalf of the rest of “the people.”
To find out the “true will of the people” — that is, registered voters who will cast their ballots — we must wait for the results of this year’s election. And whatever the results are, we should also realize that voters are free to change their minds in succeeding elections. The “will of the people” could be, well, freewheeling.
As for the current anti-Governor Torres supermajority in the House that voted to impeach him — it was formed after the governor decided to choose another running mate. That’s it, but apparently many prefer a political fairy or morality tale.
Eye roll
REGARDING the Senate president’s supposed “conflict of interest” in the ongoing (and poorly scripted) impeachment proceedings — please. Yes, he would be lt. governor in case the governor is convicted by the Senate, and the lt. governor becomes the new chief executive. But the Senate president is not among those pushing impeachment and conviction. Quite the opposite in fact.
Regardless of this back-and-forth about “conflict of interest,” real or imagined, and amid all the impassioned and often unhinged blah — and there will be more to come until the last ballot is counted in November — it’s still all about the Senate vote for or against convicting the governor. And whatever the outcome is, voters, too, will have their say soon. The rest is political twaddle.
