Gov. Juan N. Babauta has publicly declared that he would seek reelection in next year\u2019s gubernatorial race in front of a crowd of Republican partymates and supporters during his birthday bash at the Hyatt Regency Saipan Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Babauta, who turned 51, wants another four-year term together with Lt. Gov. Diego Benavente as his running mate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank the Republican Party for using the occasion of my birthday to do a fundraising and support for the party,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n
Babauta said he was personally touched by the presence of the huge crowd that graced the occasion. He estimated the crowd at 500.<\/p>\n
In a telephone interview, Babauta made special mention of Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela as one of those who attended the occasion, noting that the mayor belongs to the Republican Party\u2019s rival political party, the Covenant. \u201cI was very pleased that he [Tudela] showed up,\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n
Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Juan L. Babauta, who attended the birthday bash, expressed strong support to the reelection bid by the governor and Benavente.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely! Definitely yes! We\u2019re in for another four years,\u201d the DCCA secretary said. He said he would support Benavente should he run for governor in 2009.<\/p>\n
Benavente refused to comment on the publicly announced reelection bid until the Republican Party issues a formal announcement on the issue. The party\u2019s official candidates in next year\u2019s polls have yet to be selected based on internal procedures.<\/p>\n
Babauta\u2019s announcement of his reelection bid came quick after the U.S. Republican Party recognized its CNMI counterpart in a recent meeting of the party\u2019s national rules committee in New York.<\/p>\n
Local Republicans expect to gain an advantage in next year\u2019s Commonwealth elections, since the party could tap support from the national group and its members.<\/p>\n
The recognition allows the local Republican Party to field three voting delegates to the party\u2019s 2008 national convention that would determine who the next presidential standard bearer would be.<\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s press secretary, Pete Callaghan, said the local GOP got the national party\u2019s nod for accreditation, garnering a \u201cclear majority\u201d votes among the members. According to Callaghan, each state had two representatives in the New York meeting. He said the national party also recognized local counterparts in Guam and American Samoa.<\/p>\n
Callaghan said local GOP president John Reyes and Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio lobbied for the party recognition.<\/p>\n
With the national party recognition, Callaghan also said the governor would have expanded clout in garnering congressional and federal support on policies relevant to the CNMI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Juan N. Babauta has publicly declared that he would seek reelection in next year\u2019s gubernatorial race in front of a crowd of Republican partymates and supporters during his birthday bash at the Hyatt Regency Saipan Tuesday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83870","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}