Independent gubernatorial candidate Heinz Hofschneider and his runningmate Sen. Ray Yumul (IR-Saipan) led a discussion discerning political \u201cmyths from truths\u201d with MILE CNMI last Thursday night as part of youth voter group\u2019s ongoing meetings with this year\u2019s gubernatorial candidates.<\/p>\n
The meeting with Hofschneider and Yumul came two days after the group\u2019s meeting with Gov. Eloy S. Inos and his runningmate Senate President Ralph Torres (R-Saipan). <\/p>\n
The group of young voters are dedicated to getting more young people like themselves to vote, and have scheduled or are working to schedule meetings with candidates to inform themselves about the candidates as well as issues in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
Irene Tantiado, a group organizer, said the young voters \u201cwant to be smart.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c[They want to] make the informed decision when they choose their candidate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She added that the group is focused on getting more young people to vote, a concern which Hofschneider shared.<\/p>\n
In his community outreach, he said, \u201cI found more than 1,000 kids not registered.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that this was not \u201chealthy democratically\u201d and urges youth to register and start communicating with politicians about what they want to see done in the community.<\/p>\n
During discussion, Hofschneider took the white board and spelt out \u201cmyths\u201d and \u201ctruth\u201d as discussion ranged from the economy, to the current state of government leadership, and contract workers.<\/p>\n
He cited persistent problems with utility costs, the state of the island hospital, and an economy he claims is not improving as some of the problems he has with leadership in the CNMI these last 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeaders have failed the last 10 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When the issue of contract worker status was brought up by members of the group, he took the time to distinguish the government\u2019s actual role in the issue, suggest that since decision-making is currently left to federal authorities, what the island must do to ensure the retaining of its contract workers is to continue to grow the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cMark my word. We will grow the economy. We will petition\u2026 for CW workers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He assured the guest worker children in the group of their ability to petition their parents for visas to stay on island once they become of age and emphasized their importance in the CNMI\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re born here, this is your place. You\u2019re just as good as anybody on island,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While Hofschneider tied a strong economy to a better CNMI for its citizens and contract workers, he said that inviting any kind of investment to the island is \u201cfailed thinking\u201d and added that there was no magic solution to grow a larger economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t wait for that pie in the sky,\u201d he said. \u201cEach of us has to put a little sweat in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A member of MILE CNMI, who would like not be named, said he was satisfied with the night\u2019s discussion.<\/p>\n
The group is currently working to meet with the other gubernatorial candidates. They are scheduled to meet with Democratic candidate Edward Masga Deleon Guerrero this Friday.<\/p>\n
The group is also conducting an informal poll among 18-25 year olds for who would they vote for among this year\u2019s candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Independent gubernatorial candidate Heinz Hofschneider and his runningmate Sen. Ray Yumul (IR-Saipan) led a discussion…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,118,67,244],"class_list":["post-176751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-cw","tag-people","tag-utility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176751","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}