{"id":374586,"date":"2022-08-22T06:06:33","date_gmt":"2022-08-21T20:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=374586"},"modified":"2022-08-22T06:06:33","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T20:06:33","slug":"palacios-mayor-apatang-absolutely-open-to-gubernatorial-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/palacios-mayor-apatang-absolutely-open-to-gubernatorial-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Palacios, Mayor Apatang \u2018absolutely\u2019 open to gubernatorial debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Arnold Palacios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said yesterday that he and his running mate for lieutenant governor, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang, are absolutely open to a gubernatorial debate.<\/p>\n

In response to Saipan Tribune\u2019s question, Palacios said there is already a debate in the planning stage by the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and that has been a tradition every gubernatorial election.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I will be participating in the debate sponsored by the Chamber at the chamber\u2019s invitation,\u201d said Palacios, who is running for governor, with Apatang as his lieutenant governor, under a unified independent team in the Nov. 8 general election.<\/p>\n

Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Rep. Christina \u201cTina\u201d E. Sablan and her running mate for lieutenant governor, Rep. Leila Fleming, are challenging Palacios and Apatang, as well as Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Sen. Vinnie F. Sablan of the Republican Party, to a debate.<\/p>\n

Palacios said yesterday that a debate is important so the gubernatorial candidates can share their visions for the CNMI\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

Palacios said the debate allows them to share how to fix the CNMI\u2019s problems that presently exist, how they will meet the challenges they face, as well as how they can optimize the opportunities they have today and how they can create them.<\/p>\n

Palacios, however, does not agree with a suggestion to also have a debate among the spouses of the gubernatorial candidates.\u201cI don\u2019t know where the suggestion came from, but let\u2019s leave our spouses out of the campaign politics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Palacios said he is grateful to his wife, Wella, for her support throughout his political career, which spans almost two decades, but says she is never involved in the intricacies of policy and program decisions he makes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, she is always there to keep me grounded and remind me constantly that I work for the best interest of our people and the community that put us in office. And that\u2019s more than I should ask of her,\u201d Palacios said.<\/p>\n

Last Wednesday, Torres said he is ready for a debate with the two gubernatorial teams running against him and Sablan. He stated that there should be not one but more debates. Torres also suggested to hold for the first time a debate among gubernatorial spouses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said yesterday that he and his running mate for lieutenant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":374590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5017],"class_list":["post-374586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-mayor-apatang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374586","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=374586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}