{"id":351030,"date":"2021-09-02T06:05:08","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T20:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=351030"},"modified":"2021-09-02T06:05:08","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T20:05:08","slug":"late-blancos-sis-in-law-will-file-candidacy-today-for-special-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/late-blancos-sis-in-law-will-file-candidacy-today-for-special-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"Late Blanco\u2019s sis- in-law will file  candidacy today  for special polls"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_351032\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-351032\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Grace-Sablan-Vaiagae.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-351032\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Grace-Sablan-Vaiagae-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-351032\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grace \u201cPitu\u201d Sablan Vaiagae<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The sister-in-law of late representative Ivan Alafanso Blanco will be the CNMI Republican Party\u2019s candidate in the upcoming special election for his vacant seat in the House of Representatives Precinct 3.<\/p>\n<p>Republican Party board president James Ada said they have chosen Grace \u201cPitu\u201d Sablan Vaiagae as their candidate for the Oct. 16 special election.<\/p>\n<p>Ada said Vaiagae, a private consultant, will file her nominating petition and candidacy documents at the Commonwealth Election Commission in Susupe today, Thursday, at 3pm.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement Sunday, Ada expressed the GOP\u2019s gratitude for Vaiagae\u2019s willingness to complete the mission and service left behind by her brother-in-law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCommunity is the cornerstone of our culture. It is where we foster the belief in serving one another, where we see the role we each play in building up our neighbors, and where we find compassion and empathy for the struggles of those around us,\u201d Ada said.<\/p>\n<p>He said Vaiagae embodies these lessons, borne of her love and interaction with the community around her.<\/p>\n<p>At the 2019 special election for Precinct 3, Vaiagae submitted her letter of intent to the Republican Party, but the party chose Marco Taisakan Peter as the GOP\u2019s candidate. Peter subsequently won in that election.<\/p>\n<p>Vaiagae obtained her bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology from the University of Guam. She then pursued her master\u2019s degree while working as a therapist.<\/p>\n<p>She started her career as a teacher and guidance counselor at Marianas High School, then worked as a counselor\/therapist at the Marianas Behavioral Health International Inc. Saipan, where she dealt with alcohol, drugs, and substance abuse, and as a counselor for the Department of Public Safety.<\/p>\n<p>Former Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s budget officer Corina L. Magofna is the candidate of the NMI Democratic Party. She will file her candidacy tomorrow, Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The CEC said registration is still ongoing and that the last day to register is Sept. 17. Absentee voting applications are available online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The sister-in-law of late representative Ivan Alafanso Blanco will be the CNMI Republican Party\u2019s candidate&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":351034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-351030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351030","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}