These are the highlights from the Commonwealth Election Commision and right now it looks like Tina Sablan just made it in the sixth slot. Cinta Kaipat lost, which is quite sad. Absalom Waki is narrowly losing, which is unfortunate. Fred Deleon Guerrero won, which is great. The Casino didn't even win the popular vote in Saipan. Luis Crisostimo is winning a narrow victory over Andrew Salas and Clyde Norita, which is horrible. Nice work Brad. Where was your song? Roman Benavente lost for Board of Education. Galvin won, which is great, as did Marylou Ada.
I talked to Greg Sablan at the election commision and here is what he said: "We sent out close to 1,500 absentee ballots, about 866 for Saipan . Absentee ballots that are returned on time will be picked up, processed, and counted on 11/17. The results are unofficial until the absentees are counted and, barring no problem, are certified. Recounts are done by the Superior Court if a difference of 5 or less separates one who wins and the first loser."
In District One Ralph Torres, no surprise with the money dumped in there, was the top vote getter. David Apatang and Diego Benavente are back. Hey this election is about change. Joseph Guerrero and Joseph Reyes won. Tina won for now, but did so barely, 13 votes ahead of Janet Maratita, so this won't be certain until an inevitable recount/absentee counting.
Precinct Two has Oscar Babauta and Raymond Palacious barely ahead of Manuel Tenorio. If this stays official Tenorio loses by six votes. Danny Aquino got trounced here, a blow to racism.
District Three Heinz Hofschneider, Arnold Palacious, Ramon Tebuteb, Ray Yumul, Stanley Torres and Francisco Dela Cruz. Waki is losing by eight votes.
District Four. Joseph Camacho and Justo Quitugua won -- Camacho by a wide margin.
District Five. In this overcrowded field Rosemary Santos and Fred Deleon Guerrero won. Edward Salas lost by thirteen votes. Taotao Tano Greg Cruz was trounced, which surprises me a bit.
I'm most shocked and upset at seeing Cinta lose. I'm equally staggered that Tina is on such a thin thread. How could you possibly not vote for those two and return some of the same old people? Yecch!
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38 comments:
I wish someone would post the link to how many seats each district has. Without that information this election is confusing.
Good concise rundown and analysis Jeff.
Senate 1
P1 =6
P2 =2
P3 =6
P4 =2
P5 =2
These were open seats to be filled this term..
Precincts 1 and 3 have six Representatives each. The other Saipan election districts have two each. Tinian (ED 6) and Rota (ED 7) have one Congressman each.
http://www.votecnmi.gov.mp/e_results_2007.php?y=2007
The absentee ballots will not be counted until Saturday, November 17, 2007. So there is still room for altered results.
i just cant believe how close tina is to not making it!!!! what the hell is wrong with these voters? havent they figured out yet that voting the way they have in the past is the reason why we're in the mess we're in right now!!! sad ......
My reaction was exactly the same boonieman. It's revolting.
Thanks for the rundown to go along w/ the results on the Tribune website. Not much to be said that hasn't been said or isn't obvious.
Despite the handful of potentially positive new faces, twice as many incumbents and retreads who've been voted out before, got back in.
I'm in precinct 3, not Republican and not into status-quo, closed-door policymakers who don't feel that they have to answer to all of the people, so I'm obviously grossed out as well for my neighbors' choices. I'm not so shocked over Waki and Tina being on the bubble as I've been saying that it feels like the wagons are being circled and unfortunately, there are too many protectionists to be offended with a "governance for all rather than a few" campaign. Cinta's miss surprises me more since her policy making has been noticeably pro-local. Would it be too far-fetched to wonder if she's a victim of her many associations with non-indigenous in her extracurricular activities?
I should probably end there before I offend the easily offended.
Absentee ballots seem to follow the general trend of the already counted votes, don't expect any big turnarounds.
I agree 100% with your last paragraph. I guess that people think that things here are pretty good, they want the same old same old in office. Such a shame.
: )
Tina didn't do well because she didn't plaster the island with her smiling face promoting her "name" and family connections. Lets face it. Most people don't read the newspaper, and even fewer read the blogs. Many island households barely have anything to write with in the house, much less something to read. To win you have to do show and tell. What can you put in my rice pot bro?
okay, so ive been asking around a bit about tina sablan's results and have been told by several voters that they were confused. apparently, some people were looking for "tina sablan" and were not sure she was on their ballot, and were confused about who "christina marie sablan" is.
i guess it's too much to ask of voters to realize "tina" is short/a nickname for "christina marie"?
as far as waki and cinta, well, looks like people were upset with the covenant party candidates in general. luis crisostimo, despite being well-off (or at least comfortably successful), still refused to take a pay-cut or return the subsistence "allowance", and yet still managed to have strong support from voters.
Those two ran independently, not covenant.
At first, months ago, I thought the Christina thing was slighly confusing and mentioned it to her. Not enough to not be able to figure out the vote, though.
no cinta means the cnmi loses. no waki means the cnmi loses a lounge singer.
...he's a nice guy, though.
at least danny aquino got his ass handed to him.
OK Brad, even if you were perhaps joking, I'll stand up for my bud and tell you how shallow that comment was:
In losing Waki, the CNMI may lose;
-the only rep who didn't vote to override the vetoes of all the feel-good, vote-pandering legislation weeks before the election. Cinta didn't stand with him.
-the only rep who stood up against the closed-door, no 10% pay-cut, legislative-lifers who don't feel that they owe you an explanation for how/who they vote on/for, that you are now stuck with in entirety.
Waki's phone number is 664-8965 and e-mail is waki711@gmail.com. Give him a buzz, if he doesn't answer or reply right away, he will before noon I'm sure.
A responsive-to-all legislator, that's what the CNMI may lose. There are 300+ absentee ballots in P3.
just like the republicans in DC did with bush, cinta and waki were just trying to distance themselves from fitial and the party for election purposes. they ran as independents but kept the covenant theme for their posters and ads, and the voters slammed them.
dont get me wrong, i think its too bad they look like they wont make it, we could still use more forward thinkning legislators like them.
I don't think a covenant association hurt them as much as not being focused on bullshit like picnic tables, patronage, waving and instead bringing up actual ideas. The people here get what they deserve, and it will be same old same old and the downward spiral will continue. The smarter you are, the harder it is to get elected here. It happens to be a lot like that in the states as well. The "crazies" Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are the ones who make the most sense. An empty suit like Fred Thompson, who I wouldn't want managing a donut shop, is taken seriously because he reminds people of Reagan as both were bad actors.
don't knock the gipper!
...and randy, waki spent his office dough to help clean up saipan as well. i remember seeing red-shirted (not in the college athlete sense) volunteers picking up trash accompanied by a waki p/u truck weekend mornings.
he wasn't a bad guy, did positive things, and knew his way around a microphone, too.
i don't know much about his politics, and apparently i wasn't the only one.
he didn't campaign enough and lost out. cinta losing out is a bad thing too.
btw, i don't agree 100% with all of my office hopefuls. there's a little give and take on some of the issues, but they are genuinely good people.
can't say the same for some of the people who got in, or rather stayed in.
I'm in District 3 and lost big time for wanting change. I've heard some wishing they were in District 1, so they could vote for Tina Sablan. Me too.
Based on these election results, the 'old school politics' is here to stay for awhile.
I think change will happen when all the Filipino kids born here start turning 18. The race card will then be on the table, for better or worse. Anyone with statistics on this?
I've heard from more than one person that a lot of the major families wouldn't vote for Tina because of fear of her overturning their very profitable apple cart.
As far as Cinta, I know she lost a lot of support among the business community because of HB15-38, and I heard a lot of grumbling about the CUC override, which did nothing for businesses here.
Brad, and Jeff, Precinct 2 has big problems with drugs, children running around after 7pm with nothing to do. I've been following your comments about Danny Aquino being a racist but alot of the people I spoke to did not feel that way. Infact, he and his wife donated $4,000 of computer paper to the Public School System and another $1,000 to the youth sports program. I also was told by some Filipinos that it was Mr. Aquino who stoppted the PI consulate from double taxing the overseas contract workers during Julie Heidemans tenure. Aside from that maybe you might want to check Marianas High School because they also paid for the Special Education childrens snack at their monthly bowling activity last month. Jeff I was also told that you made some comments about Korean students and got some heat.
I even was told that one of the candidates that may make is a drug user and a big poker player. The Speaker for his part did not volunteer his 10percent pay cut. Maybe you need to go out to the different villages and see how bad the situation is before you keep badgering a person. Precinct 1 is a big disappointment also.
Diego Benavente who Tina supports is the founder and of the law that exempted the Open Government Act from being applied to the Legislature. Aside from that Diego was the consultant for Telesource receiving $10,000 per month and responsible for those junk homes that they built in Tototville. What change is there.
My take on it is that Tina and Cinta were after the same eco sensitive/government transparancy voter base. Tina entering the race diluted the vote count Cinta would have garnered. Rick is correct also that the CUC override and especially the opressive Labor bill hurt Cintas chances as well. But lots of others also overrode the CUC veto and they are still in. Overall I think it is the dilution factor that zapped Cinta, and may, after the absentee count, blow Tina out as well. A thirteen vote margin is not much to hang on to.
My take is that you, anonymous, should read his letters to the editor and talk to his employees. I've lived in CK and Dandan, I think I know how bad it is.
Bruce, of all the whacky politics you have, your disregard for the environment, as an avid diver, is the whackiest of all.
Even an Exxon "Valdez" shareholder should be able to appreciate Cinta's efforts to clean up the island.
People had six choices in precinct one, you're telling me that those concerend with the environment couldn't find room for those two?
The CUC override didn't hurt Joseph Guerrero and others. The labor bill didn't even happen yet and won't matter anyway.
I think the pozzolan issue may have hurt Rep. Kaipat.
The pozzolan issue definitely hurt. I was told last week she'd lose over this.
Everyone's disputing what issues may or may not have hurt what candidate.. the sad truth is, for a large portion of the voter block, it wasn't about issues.
All you had to do was state that you will make things better, do the funeral/lisayu/event tour, spend alot of money on signs, promise jobs, fall in line with a party and have a big family.. and you'd win.
You could ask any average voter what issue most turned them off about Cinta.. and they wouldn't be able to tell you. Ask them, what particular issue made them cast their vote for Ralph, and they probably wouldn't be able to tell you.
We aren't desperate enough yet for "issues" to be important for this large body of voters.
Sad and prescient lil. We agree wholeheartedly for once.
Lil is probably correct on this one. There are still many who vote that way, but there are signs of an emerging counter culture (for want of a better term) vote. Note a couple of new candidates elected by strong majorities. Maybe this signals a difference. If so, it will be a long time coming.
Hey, Jeff, I wasn't using eco-sensitive as a pejorative adjective...just as a general description. I may not be out there hugging the trees but I like to plant them from time to time.
Counter culture here means = People who pose reasonable questions to legislation, initiatives, plans and candidates
Thank god for that budding counter culture, eh?
bruce:
how could votes be "diluted" when a voter has the option of selecting 6 candidates?
If the voter was concerned aobut "issues" and was very concerned about the enviornment and felt that both tina and cinta were pro-environment then they would simply have marked off both of them and 4 others.
anonymous:
tina supported diego? tina is the one candidate that did not endorse a single other candidate and not once asked anyone to endorse her.
if you believed that she supported diego all you had to do was call/visit/email her and ask her directly.
as for the open gov't act law that you refer to, i believe that it was kiyu that initiated it. see link here to the law:
http://www.cnmileg.gov.mp/documents/PublicLaws/9th/PL9-002.pdf
diego was the speaker at the time. the web site does not indicate who voted in favor of it and who opposed it. my gut tells me that it was unanimously supported.
My take on Tina is that she would of made a great candidate and that not one incumbent talked about the environment something that Tina is well versed in. There were many good candidates out there and I was really shocked with Greg Cruz and Cinta. I think there was too much hype in Change. People voted for who had the bigger family.
Jeff, can you check Mr. and Ms. Wheeler of Ladera School. I think it was the Aquino's who helped Mr. Wheeler get his medical referral to the Philippines to get his prostethic leg done sometime in July or august of this year. His wife also lobbied for Mrs. Wheeler to accompany him. Need to check if this is true. Damn if the information is not true.
If Mr. Aquino did that, I'm glad to hear that. It doesn't change the fact that he scapegoats Filipinos and white people in many of his racist letters to the editor, and I'm glad he lost by a large margin.
I don't think they do Danny. Jane Mack, who isn't Korean, thinks so. I think that was about it. Talk to her. I lived in Korea for two years and have Korean friends here and there, but if pointing out that that Korean teens on tourist visas are entering our overcrowded schools is racist, then I'll take your, and Jane's, bulshit in the name of public awareness.
Nice try but not even close. Based on the broad definition of racism I'm going to check how many of out politicians and new politicians fall under this broad meaning. I believe you were justified with your comments on Asian students though.
just o be clear, danny also falls under the broad definition of "jackass."
brad, I guess it takes one to know one. Maybe you should write to the newspaper and air your frustration. maybe when danny gets back from tinian after the last rosary of his niece Ann Marie the jack ass can respond.
i'm not frustrated at all. i mean, the cnmi voted who they liked. they didn't like danny.
...oh, and they have the internet on tinian, too.
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