Despite Gov. Juan N. Babauta\u2019s public declaration that he and Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente would seek reelection in next year\u2019s polls, some of his partymates are pushing for a primary election to determine who the Republican Party\u2019s standard bearers should be.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot everyone in the party wants Babauta to run again,\u201d said Sen. Pete Reyes, a Republican. \u201cI feel the Republican Party should have a primary. They should adhere to the democratic system of government and allow others to run for the gubernatorial post.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reyes did not attend the party\u2019s fundraising event at the Hyatt Regency Saipan Tuesday night, which was also organized to celebrate Babauta\u2019s 51st birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeinz [Hofschneider] should be given the opportunity to challenge the governor in the primary,\u201d Reyes said.<\/p>\n
Hofschneider, the House of Representatives\u2019 minority leader, also said a primary election would be appropriate to determine the Republican Party\u2019s official gubernatorial candidate next year. \u201cIt\u2019s good for the electorate to have choices,\u201d said Hofschneider, another Republican.<\/p>\n
Earlier reports have it that Hofschneider wants to run for governor in next year\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n
When asked, however, if he would challenge Babauta\u2019s bid to become the Republican Party\u2019s gubernatorial candidate in 2005, Hofschneider merely said he would reserve his comments for a later time.<\/p>\n
Babauta\u2019s public announcement of his intent to seek reelection came days after the national Republic Party gave recognition to the local party.<\/p>\n
Majority of the members of the U.S. GOP\u2019s national rules committee voted in favor of the CNMI Republican Party\u2019s recognition, amid lobbying efforts by Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio.<\/p>\n
With the recognition, the CNMI Republican Party expects to gain an advantage in next year\u2019s Commonwealth elections. The local party may also seek support from the national party and its members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite Gov. Juan N. Babauta\u2019s public declaration that he and Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente would seek reelection in next year\u2019s polls, some of his partymates are pushing for a primary election to determine who the Republican Party\u2019s standard bearers should be.<\/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-83911","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\/83911","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=83911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}