Saipan — Last month, I wrote that the only interesting race in the CNMI midterms was the five-way delegate election. Its result, I said, “will answer the…question: Can someone beat the candidate backed by the powers-that-be, who are counting on their supporters — many of whom are employed by the CNMI’s largest employer, the government — to toe the line?”
The answer, which surprised everyone, was a thunderous yes.
Ordinarily, in a lousy economy, the party in power is punished by the electorate in a midterm election. In the CNMI’s case, however, the opposition Republican Party was a faded version of its prime. It couldn’t field a complete slate. For the delegate race, a primary was scheduled, but one of the two candidates, John Gonzales, decided to leave the party and run as an independent.
The GOP’s delegate nominee by default, Kimberlyn King-Hinds, is from Tinian, which has about 1,500 voters. The frontrunner was House Floor Leader Edwin Propst, from the vote-rich Precinct 1 of the CNMI’s main island, Saipan, which had over 15,000 voters.
King-Hinds, to be sure, is no pushover. She is an articulate speaker — in English and Chamorro — and can think on her feet. A lawyer, she is the former board chair of the Commonwealth Ports Authority and served as special assistant for projects and community services to former Lt. Gov. Jesus “Pepero” R. Sablan.
She was a member of the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission, a former legal counsel of the NMI Settlement Fund, and former chair of the Northern Marianas College Board of Regents. On Tinian, she was the executive director of the Tinian Youth Center and chief of staff of the mayor’s office.
She knows government. She is aware of the issues. Everyone knows her. But it was her first time to run for public office. She had to face a battle-tested politician endorsed by the governor, the lt. governor, the incumbent delegate, the Saipan mayor, the House leadership and several government officials, including former Rep. Tina Sablan, the governor’s special assistant for the climate policy and planning program, who was the chair of Propst’s committee-to-elect.
First elected to the House in 2014, Propst was reelected in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 as the top vote-getter in his precinct. He was so popular that he was re-elected in November 2020, despite having resigned in October. That was the year when allegations of sexual misconduct were filed against him. Propst said he was deeply saddened that he and his family were being subjected to “this egregious level of defamation and dirty politics.”
The Office of the Attorney General, for its part, declined to prosecute Propst, saying that “the passage of substantial time, expiration of the statute of limitations, and the desire of the victims for confidentiality weigh against prosecution.”
This year, none of Propst’s opponents raised the old allegations against him, although, not surprisingly, they resurfaced and recirculated on social media and in online newspaper comments. But again, these were old news.
What ultimately doomed his candidacy was the fact that he was the administration candidate. With the ruling Independent-Democrat coalition firmly behind him, Propst essentially ran against two Republicans, but still lost. (There were two other independent candidates, former educator Jim Rayphand and Chamorro advocate Liana Hofschneider, but many believed that the race was between Propst and King-Hinds with Gonzales as the dark horse.)
Propst was the candidate of an administration that, even two years after winning an election, still could not get its act together and continued to blame its predecessor for problems the governor and his allies knew they were inheriting.
Meanwhile, delayed road construction projects were inflicting financial losses on many businesses that had the misfortune of being located in the affected areas. Residents were leaving the islands. Tourism arrivals and hotel occupancy rates remained alarmingly low. Businesses were either downsizing or shutting down. The governor was still pursuing a “pivot” toward abject dependency on the feds, with little to show for it, while pushing for tax hikes in this economy.
The administration is flailing, taking the CNMI with it. Everyone who is not employed by this administration, or who does not benefit from it, knows that. But as the political faction in power, the administration and its allies control patronage. They are the dispensers of government favors, big and small. They assumed — and it was a reasonable assumption — that they still had the CNMI’s biggest voting bloc in their pockets. I’m referring to CNMI government employees.
As the administration candidate, Propst loudly proclaimed his adherence to the governor’s pronouncements, which included the claim that the future was bright, and today’s problems were the handiwork of the previous administration.
A few days before Election Day, the governor, in the presence of Propst and other administration candidates, announced the restoration of the executive branch employees' 80-hour work schedule. No, the governor said, politics had nothing to do with his decision to lift an unpopular austerity measure. Sure.
Meanwhile, King-Hinds, and even Gonzales, repeatedly hammered at the importance of reviving the tourism-based local economy by, among other things, tapping the China market once again. King-Hinds had clashed with the governor over this issue.
She told the public that the governor “is not willing to lift a finger to pursue all markets,” including China. She said the “path to total economic collapse is [the governor’s] choice.” Propst echoed the governor’s “concerns.”
On Election Day, the electorate rendered its verdict. King-Hinds thumped Propst by 7 percentage points, with about 67 percent of voters rejecting the administration’s candidate.
True, mainly due to the opposition’s failure to cobble together a complete slate, pro-administration lawmakers will continue to control the House of Representatives. But in the Senate, the pro-administration member from Rota, who is also the CNMI’s longest-serving elected official, lost to a candidate many of us had never heard of.
First elected in 1987, Paul A. Manglona is a former Senate president, vice president and floor leader. He lost to Ronnie M. Calvo, a special education teacher at Sinapalo Elementary School. Both ran as independents. Without Senator Paul in the next Senate, which has nine seats, the pro-administration bloc will have only four members. Four Republicans — three from Tinian and one from Rota — are likely to form the new leadership with Rota’s newest senator. The Senate can serve as a check on the tax-and-spend, pro-administration House.
Delegate-elect King-Hinds, for her part, said her top priority will be the economy.
Here’s to that.
Zaldy Dandan is editor of the CNMI’s oldest newspaper, Marianas Variety. His fourth book, “If He Isn’t Insane Then He Should Be: Stories & Poems from Saipan,” is available on amazon.com/.
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