Ex-Saipan resident appointed GOP Convention officer

Amata Coleman Radewagen, a resident of Saipan during the tenure of her father, the late Peter Tali Coleman, as Northern Marianas district administrator and deputy high commissioner of the Trust Territory, has been chosen as assistant secretary of the 2000 Republican National Convention, according to a press release issued from convention headquarters in Philadelphia.

Convention general co-chair Andy Card said that the 18 officers chosen will be instrumental in their efforts to assure that the 2000 Convention will be an unparalleled opportunity for Gov. Bush to convey his message of improving education, strengthening national defense, lowering taxes and protecting social security. “We are proud to have their leadership and support.”

Amata, the senior member of the national Republican Party’s western region, is also a 1975 graduate of the University of Guam, where she received a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Her brother, Milton Coleman, and his family are current residents of Saipan.

“I’m humbled by this appointment,” said Amata, whose brother Bruce is married to the former Vicki Sablan, the brother of Guam GOP chair David J. Sablan. “But I only accept it as an honor on behalf of all island people in Hawaii and the American territories.”

The first person representing a territory ever named as an officer of a Republican National Convention, Amata will join in major leadership roles at the convention a distinguished roster of national GOP political figures, including the U.S. speaker of the House, the Senate majority leader, six more senior U.S. senators and congressmen, and four state governors.

She also is one of one of only two members of the 165-member Republican National Committee (RNC) tapped for service on the convention rostrum.

In an appointment made by RNC chair Jim Nicholson and Card, former U.S. transportation secretary, in consultation with the party’s presumptive presidential nominee Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Amata will join two other Texas and a high ranking Pennsylvania party officials as the convention’s four assistant secretaries.

Although CNMI has Republican Party, it is not affiliated with the Republican National Committee and the Commonwealth does not participate in national conventions.