Heinz, Apatang challenge BB team

House minority leader Heinz Hofschneider and Rep. David M. Apatang declared yesterday their intention to run for governor and lieutenant governor under the Republican Party in the Nov. 2005 polls, challenging the reelection bid of incumbents Juan N. Babauta and Diego T. Benavente.

Hofschneider and Apatang asked the GOP leadership to conduct a primary election within the party, to ensure that the party’s strength would not be eroded by partisanship.

In a letter to GOP chairman Juan S. Reyes dated yesterday, Hofschneider and Apatang formally declared their intention to seek the two highest executive positions in the Commonwealth, reminding the party leadership that a primary election within the GOP has been a tradition.

“We are confident that Republican Party officials will uphold the highest standards and best traditions of politics, and support a full and fair contest to be held among all office-seekers,” they said. “Full and fair elections for the chief executive position were long ago determined to be the best way for a community to distill opinion and prevent discord and factionalism from permanently affecting the electorate. This is a system that works and we urge the party to adhere to it.”

“Our CNMI Republican Party has historically embraced people of differing views and this has proved to be its main strength. A challenge to the ‘status quo’ requiring party primary, is in keeping with these traditions,” they added.

They said that eliminating legitimate challenge to the incumbents for the party’s official standard bearers in the 2005 polls would just erode the GOP’s political strength.

The declaration by Hofschneider and Apatang came more than a week after Babauta publicly announced his intention to seek reelection with running mate Benavente during a GOP fundraising event at the Hyatt Regency Saipan, which was also the governor’s birthday celebration.

The GOP appears divided on whether or not to throw their support behind Babauta’s reelection bid. Earlier, Republican Sen. Pete Reyes said not all GOP members would support the governor’s candidacy for reelection.

The Republican Party became the first political group in the CNMI to be recognized by its national counterpart, a development that the Babauta administration has seen to boost the party’s advantage in next year’s general elections.

Majority of the members of the U.S. Republican Party’s national rules committee voted in favor of the CNMI Republican Party’s recognition, amid lobbying efforts by Reyes and Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio.

With the recognition, the local party may seek support from the national party and its members.