Don’t let it happen again

In the 2001 general elections, Ben Fitial ran for governor, offering his considerable experience, skills, contacts and leadership abilities to the people of the CNMI. Fitial promised to “deliver.” His campaign pledge was, “We shall deliver!” Unfortunately, Speaker Fitial was not given the chance to deliver the Four E’s—a better economy, better education, better environment, and better essentials—because most of our voters did not select him to be governor. Instead, many of our voters—as much as 5,000 people—voted for Juan Nekai Babauta and Diego Benavente. They voted for BB because the BB camp was successful in smearing Ben Fitial and playing the race card and the “guilt by association” card. The BB tandem successfully used scare tactics to discredit Fitial and win the election. They attacked Fitial’s support for federal lobbyists to protect our local self-government and vowed not to use lobbyists. Yet, upon taking office, the BB administration hypocritically resorted to lobbyists, even pro-garment lobbyists.

Today, as we read the daily headlines and struggle with the fuel surcharge and rising inflation, we can all plainly see the deplorable legacy of the BB administration, which has ran our economy into the ground and squandered millions of precious tax dollars on extravagant travel, highly-paid crony consultants, and disastrous Gateway La Fiasco projects and Rose Bowl initiatives.

Yet, despite the BB administration’s undeniable record of failure, the BB administration is still confident that they can bamboozle the electorate one more time to secure another four years of rampant travel, rolling blackouts, fuel surcharge raises, and gross financial mismanagement. They still think they can fool the public twice by attacking Fitial and linking him to so-called special interests.

They are trying to “make it happen” one more time, but let’s not repeat the same mistake twice and not after we’ve seen BB’s true colors and amateurish handling of matters of state. Don’t let it ever happen again. Too much is at stake. Don’t let them fool you into voting for them and rejecting the valuable services Ben Fitial has to offer as governor.

As the election draws near, BB will desperately step up the attacks on Ben & Tim’s character. They will do this to try to win another four years of tax hikes, delayed or unpaid tax rebates, and CUC problems. Expect it and be prepared for the massive BB propaganda campaign against Ben & Tim, because the Commonwealth cannot afford another four years of the BB administration. The people have had enough.

Let us not regret our vote over the next four years.

John S. DelRosario, Jr.
As Gonno