‘Food for thought’

Mr. Harry Blalock’s July 25, 2008, Food for Thought raised some interesting questions relating to a few unclear but critical election procedures that would eventually govern the CNMI’s historic non-voting delegate race that would take place this upcoming Nov. 8, 2008. Blalock, however, fell short of inquiring on how this upcoming election should be treated, taking into account that President Bush signed S. 2739 into law on May 8 this year. In accordance with Section 712 (b) of P.L. 110-229, the responsibility of the “Manner of the Election,” rests with “legislation enacted in accordance with the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.”

It is worth noting that Blalock only focused his inquiry on Article 4 Section 8 of the NMI Constitution, which in my view (and I’m not an attorney), is dead on. Nonetheless, if we “switch gears” and examine Article 8 Section 2, we would see that “other elections may be held as provided by law.” Now, the issue at hand reverts back to my earlier point which is, “How should the CNMI treat this upcoming election?” Should it treat it as a “regular election” or a “special election”? With only one seat up for grabs (two seats, if Sen. Crisostimo resigns his post), I think it would be difficult for the Legislature to treat this coming election as a “regular election”. Moreover, there are two things to consider when trying to “disqualify” a candidate based on a constitutional provision that, as shown above, conflicts with another provision found in the same local Constitution. First, do we want the U.S. District Court to intervene and once again, strike down another provision of the NMI’s Constitution, as was the case with the submerged lands issue? And secondly, would it be fair to disqualify a candidate given that this U.S. Public Law was just enacted this year?

Finally, I want to add to Mr. Blalock’s list of questions. While I understand that Senator Crisostimo must resign his elected post upon certification of his candidacy, another question worth posing is: Would the same law apply to Washington Representative Pete A. Tenorio? Additionally, I want to know what happens to the more than a hundred Labor and Immigration personnel that will be adversely affected by the same U.S. law creating the non-voting delegate seat; particularly, those who only have a few years to retire. For the fortunate employees absorbed (based on qualifications) by the Federal Immigration Office, would their services under the Feds be counted toward the CNMI’s retirement vested service program? A dual retirement system, so to speak. I agree with Harry that a lot of “hard questions” must be asked of the candidates vying for this historic office and the time to ask is now!