Consultant says Bush not out of race

Saipan Tribune reporter Dennis B. Chan conducts an ambush interview of presidential candidate Jeb Bush representative Alan Philp at the Governor’s Office last week. (Contributed Photo)

Each of the five territories has a block of delegates that they send to the national convention. The local GOP is planning to send nine delegates from the CNMI.

“Increasingly it may look like we will get to a convention in July in Cleveland, Ohio, in which there is no apparent candidate who has a majority of the delegates,” Alan Philp, a former policy director to then Florida governor Jeb Bush, told Saipan Tribune in an interview last week.

“Every delegate counts,” he added. “The territories play a major role in that process.”

Philp said he was on island “to listen,” and report back to candidate Bush. “The type of person he is—he really cares about every citizen, whether they have a lot of political influence or not.

“When you think about what Washington, D.C. has become, they care about the people who have money or votes, and the territories don’t really have a lot of either,” Philp said. “But Jeb is the type of person who really cares. I want to make sure he understands the issues” that the CNMI has with immigration, labor force shortage, and the Department of Defense.

Philp said that Bush is welcome to bringing in high-skilled workforce through the H-1 visa in the 50 states and that “would apply in the territories.”

He said as they “try to create a strong jobs environment here” amid a growing economy that we have the workforce.”

As the Republican Party looks to caucuses in Iowa on Feb. 1, New Hampshire n Feb. 8 and then Nevada and South Carolina, followed by the CNMI and the other territories in March, Philp said they are entering the “real campaign season now.”

“The NMI is very important to this process and we urge all Republicans to go the convention,” he said. “We ask for their vote for Jeb Bush because hopefully he’s the best candidate.

Even as national media has narrowed their focus on the top two candidates leading the polls—Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz—Philp cautioned that it would be “very premature to narrow it down” and to “keep an eye out” for a rising Bush.

“What’s going to happen here is, when you do polls right now, the Republicans say yeah, I think I’m with Trump, or I think I’m with Cruz or Bush, but they all say they may change their mind.”

“There is an incredible amount of fluidity in the vote right now so things are going to change pretty rapidly in the next five weeks, “he said. “I think Jeb is very well positioned in organization and message. I think he will be gaining momentum in the next few weeks.”