{"id":354229,"date":"2021-10-21T06:00:26","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T20:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=354229"},"modified":"2021-10-21T06:00:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T20:00:26","slug":"palacios-to-run-as-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/palacios-to-run-as-governor\/","title":{"rendered":"Palacios to run as governor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lt. Gov. Arnold Indalecio Palacios confirmed yesterday that he will be running for governor with Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang as his running mate for the November 2022 election. <\/p>\n

Palacios, a Republican, told the media that he and Apatang will be running \u201cat this point\u201d as an independent slate.<\/p>\n

Palacios made the disclosure a day after Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) announced on social media and through a letter to the editor that he will be seeking re-election as a delegate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is in Congress I can best serve to make the lives of people of the Northern Marianas better. That is the work I will continue to do for you if you so choose on election day next year,\u201d said the 66-year-old Sablan. <\/p>\n

\"\"
Sablan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He said the truth is that the CNMI\u2019s problem is more than one corrupt individual. \u201cWe have allowed a culture of corruption to grow in our society, where many see what is happening, but too few are willing to say stop,\u201d Sablan said. \u201cUntil more say basta (stop), the corruption will continue, no matter who is governor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sablan became the CNMI\u2019s first elected delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008. He is currently serving his seventh term.<\/p>\n

Sablan\u2019s announcement Tuesday ended the Democratic Party\u2019s hope to have him as their candidate for governor to challenge the candidacy of incumbent Gov. Ralph DLG Torres in next year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

Palacios said yesterday that he and Apatang will officially announce their intent to run at a declaration ceremony at the Minachom Atdao today, Thursday, at 2:30pm.<\/p>\n

Besides Palacios, so far it has only been incumbent Gov. Ralph DLG Torres who has already said he will run next year. His running mate is Sen. Vinnie Vinson Sablan (R-Saipan).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Palacios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When asked why he decided to run against Torres, Palacios said there are \u201ca lot of things wrong\u201d in the Commonwealth. \u201cThere\u2019s a crisis in our Commonwealth, a crisis of confidence in our government,\u201d said Palacios during an interview with the media in the House of Representatives Speaker\u2019s conference room shortly after the swearing in ceremony of Rep. Corina L. Magofna (D-Saipan). <\/p>\n

Despite all the resources that have been made available to the CNMI, they still see people struggling, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Dave [Apatang] and I have the qualification and the acumen to make a huge difference in short order. It\u2019s really about management and trust,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Palacios said he was very surprised at the overture of the Democratic Party when it announced to the public that they would welcome him, like any other persons interested to serve the people, if he submits a letter of intent to run under the Democratic Party. He said to be considered by the Democratic Party is something that he and Apatang have not sat down to talk about and discuss. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I want to say that we certainly appreciate the overture that the Democratic Party has made to us,\u201d the 66-year-old Palacios said.<\/p>\n

Palacios was elected lieutenant governor with Torres in 2018. Torres and Palacios began their terms in January 2019.<\/p>\n

Palacios used to serve as a Saipan senator and became Speaker of the House\u2019s 16th Legislature. <\/p>\n

Some say that Palacios\u2019 candidacy will split the votes of the Republicans as Torres is the titular head of GOP. This is being seen as beneficial to whoever is the Democratic Party\u2019s candidate for governor and lieutenant governor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lt. Gov. Arnold Indalecio Palacios confirmed yesterday that he will be running for governor with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":354232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[133],"class_list":["post-354229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-run"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354229","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=354229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}