One-on-one turns into 3-on-one

With no sure winner yet in this year’s gubernatorial race, Office of Insular Affairs Deputy Assistant Secretary David B. Cohen will end up meeting with all the potential gubernatorial winners.

Cohen, in an interview during yesterday’s Veterans Day event at American Memorial Park, said that he included Saipan in his itinerary partly “to meet with whoever is the winner” in the Nov. 5 general elections.

Cohen arrived on Saipan three days after the election. He is set to leave on Tuesday, Nov. 15, for Palau to represent the United States in the Conference of the Pacific Community.

Since he will be leaving before the counting of the absentee ballots—set on Nov. 19—Cohen has decided to set separate meetings with Covenant Party’s Benigno R. Fitial, independent candidate Heinz S. Hofschneider, and incumbent Gov. Juan N. Babauta.

Cohen and Babauta were set to meet last Wednesday night.

“I’ll be meeting with all of them. I was hoping to sit down with whoever won the election, but since everybody is waiting [for the final result], I’ll be meeting more people,” said Cohen yesterday.

The DOI official said he wants “to hear” from the candidates, know their priorities, and discuss “how we can work together to advance the issues affecting the CNMI.” These include the CNMI’s quest for a delegate in the U.S. Congress and its claim over submerged lands, among others.

Cohen said the department intends “to work with whoever wins the elections” in the CNMI.

Based on a partial tally, the gubernatorial tandem of Fitial and Tim P. Villagomez is leading, with a total of 3,497 votes—just 126 votes higher than the independent gubernatorial tandem of Hofschneider and David Apatang, which garnered 3,3371 votes. GOP’s Gov. Juan N. Babauta and Diego T. Benavente received 3,228 votes. Placing fourth is Democratic Party’s gubernatorial team of Froilan C. Tenorio and Antonio Santos, with 2,256. Tenorio has already conceded to his opponents.

The Election Commission is set to tabulate the absentee ballots on Nov. 19. The poll body said it sent out 1,602 ballots to overseas registered CNMI voters.

Meantime, Cohen, who was recently named by President Bush as U.S. Representative to the SPC, will attend the biannual high-level meetings of the SPC on Nov. 18 in Koror, Palau.

SPC was founded as the South Pacific Commission in 1947 by Australia, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States under the Canberra Agreement.

SPC aims to develop the technical, professional, scientific, research, planning and management capability of the peoples of the Pacific, to provide them information and advice directly and to enable them to make informed decisions about their future development and well-being, OIA said.