{"id":222984,"date":"2016-03-14T06:06:31","date_gmt":"2016-03-13T20:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=222984"},"modified":"2016-03-14T06:06:31","modified_gmt":"2016-03-13T20:06:31","slug":"hillary-cnmi-democrats-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/hillary-cnmi-democrats-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillary is CNMI Democrats\u2019 choice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Those<\/a>
Those present at the first-ever NMI Democratic Caucus on Saipan last Saturday raise their hands for their ballots to be collected. Former secretary of state and former New York senator Hillary Clinton was the CNMI Democratic Party\u2019s choice after caucuses on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota were held. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s Hillary Clinton for the CNMI Democratic Party, after nearly 200 people showed up in caucuses on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota to back a Democratic presidential candidate and elect delegates to represent the NMI in the Democratic Party National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

This was the first Democratic caucus in NMI history. A total of 132 people showed up for the Saipan caucus, 16 for Tinian, and 41 on Rota, according to the official caucus results.<\/p>\n

Clinton garnered 102 votes and four delegates were allocated to her and Sanders earned 65 votes, garnering two delegates.<\/p>\n

\u201cRota and Tinian carried the day for Hillary Clinton,\u201d said local representative for the Clinton campaign, Janet King, after the votes had been tallied. A lot of people on Saipan came out for Sanders, King said, but \u201coverall Hillary is the choice for the CNMI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to a crowd at the Royal Taga Hall at World Resort, where supporters wore T-shirts of their preferred candidate, adorned themselves with stickers, and waved flags, King called the day\u2019s event \u201cone direct way\u201d to get the CNMI \u201ccloser to the ear of the president.\u201d <\/p>\n

King said that she believes in Clinton for her extensive years in the Democratic Party, working with myriads of groups, and called the constituents Clinton has served as two-term senator for New York and as secretary of state \u201cvery, very broad.\u201d<\/p>\n

That constituency is \u201cnow working to get closer to the NMI,\u201d King said. Clinton is serious and \u201cwhat we in the CNMI need,\u201d she added. \u201cThis opportunity for 11 delegates to be in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,\u201d is \u201cone step closer to the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Woodruff, the official local representative for the Sanders campaign, for his part, thanked supports for taking time to participate in a \u201chistoric occasion.\u201d \u201cThis is the first time the people in the CNMI have ever had an opportunity to help choose who will be next president\u201d and \u201cI firmly believe that the next president will be a Democrat,\u201d Woodruff said, extending \u201cgreetings\u201d from Bernie Sanders himself. <\/p>\n

Sanders, Woodruff said, \u201chas consistently adhered to principles of honesty and commitments to certain core values.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCivil rights, justice for ordinary people, economic justice, social justice,\u201d Woodruff said. \u201cThat\u2019s Bernie Sanders. Which is one reason why he is the better choice tonight.\u201d <\/p>\n

Woodruff defended Sanders\u2019 policies against those who say they weren\u2019t \u201crealistic,\u201d saying that economists have found them \u201csound.\u201d He also called Sanders \u201cthe amendment king\u201d during his 25 years in U.S. Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows how to get things done\u201d and \u201chas all the experience to do the job from day one,\u201d Woodruff said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe corrupting effects of money and politics. The way that the system is rigged in favor of big corporations because of their money\u2014Bernie Sanders is committed to ending that. He is committed to revitalizing the American middle class which has been destroyed over the last 30 years by massive transfers of wealth from the middle class to the top one percent in the country.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cBiba Bernie!\u201d Woodruff said, to cheer and applause.<\/p>\n

While the choices seemed clear heading into the caucus, local attorney Michael White offered another option, the \u201cuncommitted\u201d vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should we vote uncommitted?\u201d White said, speaking to the crowd on Saturday. \u201cBecause it\u2019s the smart thing to do. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 2,083 delegates needed to select the Democratic nominee for president. As of the today, the leading candidate has barely half of that number. There are a lot of big states that haven\u2019t voted yet\u201d and \u201ceverything is still up in the air\u201d and there are \u201ca lot of heavy delegate-rich states that haven\u2019t voted yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens at the convention, if we support candidate A and candidate B goes into the convention with an absolute majority of the delegates? How will president B feel about the CNMI at that point? I think it\u2019s better to remain uncommitted.\u201d<\/p>\n

White said that if the nomination is decided at the time of the convention, the NMI \u201c can vote with the winner.\u201d \u201cWe don\u2019t have to cast our ballots for the loser,\u201d as you do if you commit to a candidate that heads into the convention without a majority of delegates.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at it another way,\u201d White urged. \u201cWhat do we know about what the candidates will offer the territories, including the CNMI? If we go uncommitted we\u2019ll be in a better bargaining position to work with the next president of the United States to try and get what we need to try and improve our situation. The smart choice is to vote uncommitted.\u201d<\/p>\n

A total of 22 voted for the uncommitted option.<\/p>\n

Rock De La Fuente garnered zero votes.<\/p>\n

\u2018Exciting\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

For many at the caucus Saturday, a chance to exercise their vote was an exiting one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came to practice our rights to vote,\u201d said college student Kim Bautista, who came with a cohort of other students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is democracy in action,\u201d said Ajani Burrell, a Sanders supporter and instructor at the Northern Marianas College, who called it exciting to be part of a presidential election so far away from the mainland.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Sanders] seems to be one that has been supportive of and fighting for the middle class Americans for the longest time,\u201d Burrell said, while standing in line in to register at the caucus on Saturday. \u201cMiddle class America has not seen the gains that other parts of the economy have. I have more faith in him to represent the interests of the middle class.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am voting for Hillary Clinton,\u201d said Magdiel Corpuz, a college student. \u201cShe is very supportive of immigration and of students like myself. I see a lot of college students here and also young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a mother,\u201d said NMI Democratic Party Chairman Rosiky F. Camacho. \u201cA mother like Hillary would probably would be the best for American and for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mo Howland, a physician at the local hospital, backed Sanders \u201cbecause he is interested in restoring the balance of money and power away from the upper one\/tenth and back to the people.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHe is going to do good things against crime by giving free college to the thug class that doesn\u2019t have a way out of the ghetto,\u201d said Howland, before he registered to vote on Saturday. \u201cAnd I see him as being internationally stable by looking for diplomacy and coalition rather than America being the world\u2019s policeman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMore power to the people is good for anybody, even in the CNMI,\u201d Howland added.<\/p>\n

Herb Soll, a retired judge and Democratic supporter, said he was in the 2012 Democratic Convention with former judge Edward Manibusan, \u201cthe first two people\u201d there at the convention when the party was first admitted to the Democratic National Party at the convention. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very impressive,\u201d Soll said of the turnout<\/p>\n

Asked what he thought of the day\u2019s turnout, Soll said, \u201cIt was very impressive,\u201d and added he \u201cabsolutely\u201d encourages more part activity in the future.<\/p>\n

For Clinton delegates, Angelo Villagomez, Joseph Hill, Janet King, and a to-be-decided female delegate will representing the NMI in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

For Sanders, it will be Woodruff and to-be-decided female delegate.<\/p>\n

Based on the voting, Clinto was allocated four delegates, an equal split of male and female. Sanders garnered two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Hillary Clinton for the CNMI Democratic Party, after nearly 200 people showed up in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":222993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[10235,26,10271,67],"class_list":["post-222984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-cnmi","tag-hilary-clinton","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222984","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=222984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}