{"id":222921,"date":"2016-03-11T06:06:18","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T20:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=222921"},"modified":"2016-03-11T06:06:18","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T20:06:18","slug":"hillary-bernie-cnmi-democratic-caucus-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/hillary-bernie-cnmi-democratic-caucus-tomorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillary or Bernie? CNMI Democratic caucus tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-222921 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/hillary-bernie-cnmi-democratic-caucus-tomorrow\/clinton-pix\/'>Clinton-pix<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-222927'>\n\t\t\t\tHillary Clinton\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/hillary-bernie-cnmi-democratic-caucus-tomorrow\/sanders-mug\/'>Sanders-mug<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-222926'>\n\t\t\t\tBernie Sanders\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Ahead of the Northern Marianas Democratic Party caucus tomorrow, the choices have been clear for some time: hoarse-throated, self-proclaimed enemy of Wall Street, Sen. Bernie Sanders, or former secretary of state, establishment favorite, and potential first woman president Hillary Clinton, for the party\u2019s presidential candidate come the November election.<\/p>\n<p>The Northern Marianas Democratic Party holds its Saipan caucus tomorrow, Saturday, March 12, at Saipan World Resort\u2019s Royal Taga Ballroom. Registration for the caucus will start at 6pm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope that Democrats and people interested in participating in the Democratic Party process turn out on Saturday,\u201d said Brian Flaherty, a local volunteer helping organizeng tomorrow\u2019s caucus.<\/p>\n<p>Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP), for his part, reiterated his support of Clinton as \u201cthe only candidate\u201d who would recognize the importance of Asian Pacific Americans in a statement yesterday. Sablan believes Clinton\u2019s \u201cpractical problem-solving and experience\u201d is needed for the long list of health care, the military, and labor force issues affecting the islands.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Edwin Propst (Ind-Saipan), though, is \u201cfeeling the Bern\u201d as in Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy Bernie? I think he stands for a lot of things that I firmly believe in. As a college graduate, I know what is like to be in debt. I am still paying my college loans. I like the fact that he embraces the notion that we need to invest in our youth, in our young minds. And we are not a socialist country just because we are going to fund public colleges. We are already funding public schools, so what really is the difference? It is just an extension of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s being done in many different countries,\u201d Propst added. \u201cThey are investing in young minds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Propst also tips his hat to Sander\u2019s pledge to improve health care. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen improvements that the Affordable Care Act has done, he said, referring to President Barack Obama\u2019s sweeping health care initiative. \u201cI think that Bernie\u2019s health care plans go a step further. And anybody that believes it is socialist or communist simply has to do some basic research and look at the rest of the world\u2019s countries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe in him because he has the heart, he\u2019s been consistent and he is a passionate and caring. He is only going to war as last resort and explore all the avenues of diplomacy before ever even considering that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But whoever does win the election come November, Propst prays the CNMI is \u201cnot forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are an extension, a territory, a Commonwealth of the United States. Our needs are just as great as any town in the mainland,\u201d Propst said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am totally with Bernie but if someone is choosing Hilary, I am perfectly fine with that,\u201d Propst said. \u201cJust as long as it\u2019s not [Donald] Trump or [Sen. Ted] Cruz [the Republican Party candidates]. That\u2019s the only thing that would be most devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Local attorney Janet King, the representative of the CNMI for Hillary Clinton campaign, said she supports Clinton \u201cbecause of her long history of experience and sound policy ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe is smart,\u201d King said, \u201cand her plans and proposals are achievable. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t afford someone like Senator Bernie Sanders who may sound like he has good ideas, but his plans on how to achieve them are just not realistic,\u201d King added. \u201cThat\u2019s the difference between Hillary and Mr. Sanders. I choose Hillary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur great nation,\u201d King said, \u201cis getting ready to elect its 45th president, and I hope that the American people elect Hillary Clinton as our first woman president!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Woodruff, the NMI authorized representative for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, told Saipan Tribune that the short answer to \u201cWhy Bernie?\u201d is because \u201cHe is the is the candidate with the best vision of what America can and should be, and also the candidate with the best prospects of defeating whoever is the Republican candidate in November.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Woodruff says Sanders has the highest favorable rating of any candidate in either party and the lowest unfavorable rating, and does not have the negatives and vulnerabilities Clinton has. And that in head-to-head polling matchups with possible Republican candidates, Sanders consistently performs better than Clinton, beating every possible Republican candidate by wide margins.<\/p>\n<p>Sanders also recognizes that climate change poses an existential threat to the entire human species, Woodruff added. \u201cSanders wants to eliminate the use of fossil fuels and opposes environmentally dangerous practices like fracking and the Keystone XL pipeline.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is against bad trade deals,\u201d Woodruff and, \u201clike the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) that major corporations negotiated in secret for their own benefit. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe knows we must regulate \u201cWall Street\u201d and do away with \u201ctoo big to fail,\u201d Woodruff said. \u201cHe knows how corporate welfare and crony capitalism are destroying the American economy and the American middle class. He will work tirelessly to remove the corrupting influence of money from American politics and government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSander knows that America is made less, not more, secure by military adventurism,\u201d Woodruff said. And unlike Clinton, Woodruff said Sanders voted against \u201cthe disastrous Iraq war that cost us a trillion dollars, thousands of American lives.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ahead of the Northern Marianas Democratic Party caucus tomorrow, the choices have been clear for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":222926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[26,55,3973,200],"class_list":["post-222921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-cnmi","tag-health-2","tag-hillary-clinton","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222921","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=222921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}