Sunny and hot-but occasional cool breezes.

This cartoon attempts to highlight the misdirected priorities of our current administration.  Unseating a successful and popular (and honest) delegate in the US House of Representatives seems to be far more important than the task of governing or addressing the serious problems of crime, crumbling economy, and ruined infrastructure. While daily reports confirm that government spending is out of control, budgeting is based on magical thinking, crimes go unsolved and the people suffer, huge ads supporting Acha Demapan in Republican red and letters to the editor in her support take precedence.

The little guys comment that casinos still seem to be a priority-and they are as yet another attempt to ramrod casinos down the throats of Saipan voters has been recently raised. We'll see a lot more of that after the election (unless the people vote more intelligently than they have in the past--and there's little reason to think they will).

The people are not the priority of the administration.  Nor are they the priority of the voters--who vote their individual fortunes and pockets, not for hte public good.

CNMI's 2009 Election-some basic information

The election will be on November 7, 2009, with polls open from 7 AM to 7 PM, according to the CNMI Election Commission. It's not all that easy to get comprehensive information about the election.

The CEC doesn't list all of the candidates on its website; nor do the CNMI newspapers. I've e-mailed to the CEC for a list of all candidates, and I'm waiting on their response. In the meantime, here's what I've put together so far from the scattered reports in the newspapers and the campaign advertising by the Covenant and Republican parties and the (Pan)Guerrero/Camacho and (Kumoi) Guerrero/Borjaindependent campaigns.

(Just click to enlarge.)





I'm sure there are mistakes and omissions. Please feel free to add information in the comments.

293. CNMI Election Returns

We're waiting on the absentee ballots. 9289 ballots cast and counted here. Election results from Vote CNMI show

Kilili the clear leader with 2279 votes,
followed by Pete A with 1919 and
John Gonzales at 1740.

In September, I had these same three at the top of my list.

Lil Hammerhead will be happy with Kilili's win (assuming, knock on wood, that the absentee ballots don't change the outcome). I hope he does us proud in Washington, D.C. and wish him congratulations and best wishes.

Face forward, the past behind us...

The other contenders:

Juan Lizama at 1611,
Luis Crisostimo at 879,
David Cing at 270
Felipe Atalig at 233
Chong Won at 219, and
John Davis in the cellar at 139.

I'd rather have seen John Davis beat out everyone from Luis Crisostimo on down, but that's my personal preference. I'm not sure if you're going to lose an election if it matters how close you came.