The Democratic Party of Guam released the following statement after the debate:
“The difference between a strong leader committed to moving Guam forward and a candidate who continues to push alternative facts could not have been clearer.
"While Gov. Leon Guerrero outlined the work her administration did to protect the health of our people and our economy and her plan to keep our island moving forward, former governor Camacho resorted to using scare tactics to instill fear among Guam voters.
"Rather than acknowledging the pandemic as a deadly reality, he calls it a 'political ploy.' Instead of providing clear, concrete solutions to solving Guam’s problems, he shifts the blame. While he talks about 'what should have been done,' he forgets about what he didn’t do during his eight years in office.
"As Gov. Leon Guerrero reminded us, the same things her opponent is claiming are wrong with today’s government have been systemically broken since his eight years as Governor, and even more so under 16 years of Republican stewardship.
"The former governor fails to understand from his time in office that being a leader requires tough decisions. Gov. Leon Guerrero displayed grace, strength and competent leadership. The former governor, however, launched vicious personal attacks – falsely accusing her of taking away people’s freedoms, saying that Mickey Mouse could have handed out $2 billion of aid better and that she was not compassionate.
"All the time Camacho spent away from Guam while he was in office when our people faced some of our darkest times in recent history prevented him from learning the basic tenets of leadership.
"The former governor showed how out of touch he is with the process by calling for a third-party audit on federal spending, which has already been performed, and was issued. A clean audit with only roughly 2% of questioned costs - which were primarily attributed to overpayment to recipients of PUA.
"The opposition’s repeated calls for the insertion of the church into the state show that Camacho is not serious about the United States Constitution and only uses the Constitution to try and divide the people of Guam. His complete lack of plans for the economy reinforces why tourism struggled under his administration.
"While the opposition was focused on delivering a sound byte, Gov. Leon Guerrero spoke about improvement in government services for everyone: public sector, private sector and nonprofit organizations, including faith-based organizations.
"Governor Leon Guerrero showed a positive, upbeat outlook for the future while the former governor attempted to sow fear and discourse amongst our population.
"The Governor countered by reminding him that the same things he claims are wrong with today’s government have been systemically broken since his eight years as Governor, and even more so under 16 years of Republican stewardship. And then she laid out how, in just 3 and a half years, in the face of the global pandemic, she has steadily solved so many of those issues and laid out her plans for how she is going to address them as she moves forward.
"Democrats believe that voters want leaders. They want those who know what leadership entails. We will work hard to remind today’s voters what the last 16 years of Republican leadership were like under both Camacho and Eddie Calvo.
"The Democratic Party of Guam stands solidly behind Governor Lou and Lt. Governor Josh Tenorio for another four years to protect our people and to keep our island moving forward. We can’t afford to go back to another Camacho administration.”
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