Former governor and Democratic Party chair Froilan C. Tenorio denied yesterday that he is planning to get Sen. Luis Crisostimo as his running mate for this year\u2019s gubernatorial race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never wanted him to be my running mate. I want to set the record straight. I never thought of him [as my running mate]. I have my own running mate but I\u2019m not ready to announce it right now,\u201d said Tenorio in an interview.<\/p>\n
Tenorio, who served as governor in the mid-90s, earlier announced that he would run again for the highest elective post in the upcoming November election.<\/p>\n
To boost his political chances, Tenorio had rejoined the Democratic Party in September 2004 and had gotten himself elected as central committee chair.<\/p>\n
In October last year, Crisostimo had told the media that he would also seek the party\u2019s endorsement for governorship, indicating that he would not settle as Tenorio\u2019s running mate. Crisostimo said he would only agree to the setup if Tenorio defeats him in a party primary.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he [Tenorio] beats me, then fine, he can go ahead but if I beat him in the primary, I\u2019m the one running for governor and he\u2019d be my lieutenant governor,\u201d the senator said.<\/p>\n
When reached yesterday, Tenorio said that he has not received Crisostimo\u2019s Dec. 28, 2004, letter of intent to run as governor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know about that. I never knew he submitted one until today [from the newspaper]. Perhaps he doesn\u2019t know the new mailing address of the party,\u201d said Tenorio.<\/p>\n
He said the senator can send his letter of intent to the party\u2019s new address: PMB 850, P.O. Box 10006, Saipan.<\/p>\n
Tenorio also denied that he had declined to accept Crisostimo\u2019s letter, as claimed by Crisostimo\u2019s group.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have any choice but to receive it as party chairman. If he writes a letter I\u2019ll accept it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In the December letter, Crisostimo declared, \u201cI humbly submit my letter of intent for the highest post\u2026 for office of the governor under the Democratic Party banner.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the letter, the senator did not discuss his plans if elected governor but focused mainly on the need for the local party to be affiliated with the national Democratic Party\u2014putting a major distinction between him and Tenorio, who has publicly declared that he is a Republican at heart.<\/p>\n
Tenorio had aligned himself with the Bush party during the last national election.<\/p>\n
Tenorio was also perceived as uncooperative with federal authorities during his term as governor.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an official member of the party, our goal would be to link, associate, and harness the members of Congress and the administration\u2019s full affiliation of the National Democratic Party and enjoy partisan support with the U.S.,\u201d the senator said.<\/p>\n
Through this, he said the local party will obtain \u201cgreat party support and loyalty from our national leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the Democratic Party has very little future if it is not united within the CNMI. \u201c[By] being united, we will represent not just the officers, members, and elected officials, but we represent the majority of the Commonwealth\u2019s working class,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Crisostimo also noted the importance of the CNMI\u2019s support for the United States in its international campaign for peace and democracy.<\/p>\n
Tenorio said the party has until the end of the month to accept letters of intent for those who want to run for public office under the party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former governor and Democratic Party chair Froilan C. Tenorio denied yesterday that he is planning to get Sen. Luis Crisostimo as his running mate for this year\u2019s gubernatorial race.<\/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-87070","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\/87070","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=87070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}