Juan N. Babauta stepped down as the CNMI Republican Party president Saturday night during the party\u2019s general membership meeting where about a hundred members unanimously approved the selection of Gov. Benigno R. Fitial to replace him.<\/p>\n
Babauta\u2019s resignation was the result of his appointment to the new healthcare corporation as its chief executive officer. In his message to members, he emphasized the need to devote his undivided time to his new responsibilities. <\/p>\n
Fitial won the seat unopposed during Saturday night\u2019s assembly at Garapan Central Park.<\/p>\n
Babauta said that Fitial\u2019s selection was made in accordance with the party\u2019s rules and bylaws and he is confident in the advantages it will bring not only to the local party but to the entire Commonwealth as well.<\/p>\n
He described the party\u2019s new president as someone who has a very strong relationship with the national Republican committee in Washington, D.C. He disclosed that Fitial also has a good rapport with the current chairman of Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, and has constant communication with key members of the committee at national level. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is crucial for the many issues we face here,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
According to Fitial, he previously served both as chairman and vice chairman at the GOP national steering committee for many terms.<\/p>\n
At the local party level, Babauta is confident that Fitial can bring unity to both Republican and Covenant parties, the faction that Fitial created when he ran and won as governor in 2005 and 2009. Babauta added that Fitial remains a solid Republican by heart.<\/p>\n
With the GOP now controlling the U.S. House, Babauta believes that the political trend at the national level will have the party taking control of the Senate in the next national election. This, he said, would be advantageous to the CNMI, which has a Republican governor.<\/p>\n
Fitial vowed to strengthen the Republican Party by implementing \u201cinclusivity\u201d among its membership. To do this, he said the party needs to expand its grassroots by way of networking with precinct clubs. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to expand the support for the party because I believe that if you don\u2019t have the numbers, you don\u2019t have a party that is strong. That\u2019s my goal: to expand our grassroots. How? By networking the precinct clubs,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
When asked if the new responsibility will not hamper his busy schedule as the CNMI governor, Fitial said this will not have an effect in any way because party meetings will be held after work hours.<\/p>\n
When Fitial moved to the Republican Party last year, he moved with him many key supporters but not Lt. Gov. Eloy Inos, who has vowed to remain with the Covenant Party. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have tremendous respect for the desire of any Republican or Covenant member where they want to go. I will not force anybody, but I welcome all of them to come back to the Republican Party,\u201d said Fitial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Juan N. Babauta stepped down as the CNMI Republican Party president Saturday night during the party\u2019s general membership meeting where about a hundred members unanimously approved the selection of Gov. Benigno R. Fitial to replace him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}