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Taotao Tano calls for Crisostimo resignation
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Posted on Sep 28 2008
A local activist group has called for the resignation of Sen. Luis Crisostimo, who is running for congressional delegate.
Taotao Tano CNMI president Greg Cruz in a letter to Senate President Pete P. Reyes pointed to a constitutional provision that requires an elected official to resign once certified to run for another position.
“Clearly our constitution states that Senator Crisostimo should resign from office since he is an elected official. We believe that since you are the presiding overall officer and president of the Senate, it is your duty to immediately request for his resignation,” said Cruz.
Senate legal counsel Antonio Cabrera has issued a legal opinion indicating that the resignation requirement applies to Crisostimo, who is serving his second term as senator and who has been certified as a candidate for Commonwealth delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.
But Reyes, in an interview, said the Senate has been offered another legal take on the matter. That opinion is based on the Hawaii Supreme Court’s ruling on a suit former Hawaii state legislator Steve Cobb filed in 1986 to determine whether a state senator must resign his seat in order to become a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. The Hawaii Supreme Court held that the drafters of the constitutional provision did not show intent to include candidates for federal office within its scope, and therefore a state senator was not required to resign in order to run for Congress.
Reyes also said the Senate cannot force Crisostimo out because technically he is not violating any Senate rule by running for Congress. “We don’t have anything in our rules about a member running for a federal position. So it’s not within our power to expel him. But that does not stop any citizen from taking him to court for possibly violating the Constitution,” he said.
Yet, the Senate president said that if he were in Crisostimo’s shoes, he would step down for ethical reasons. He said an elected official owed it to the people who put him in office to resign when he is no longer interested in keeping the position for which he was elected.
