GOP, Dems set separate gatherings

Nine months before the 2014 general elections, the Democratic Party of the Northern Marianas and the Republican Party of the Northern Mariana Islands Association will hold separate gatherings this month.

Gov. Eloy S. Inos and Senate President Ralph Torres (R-Saipan) will have a “greet and meet” with Republican Party members, family, friends, and supporters on Sunday, Feb. 16, at the beach area next to the Tronkon Daok and the 4-H Club Building in Susupe. The gathering starts at 10am.

Inos and Torres are the Republican Party’s official candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively, in the November race.

The “special picnic” is organized by the Republican Party and the Committee to Elect Eloy S. Inos and Ralph DLG. Torres.

Inos was the titular head of the Covenant Party before it merged with the Republican Party.

To date, no other potential candidates for the November 2014 have announced intention to seek the post of governor.

The Republican Party’s Sunday gathering also comes at a time when the GOP still does not have a chairman. The party has yet to replace Joaquin “Jack” P. Villagomez, who resigned as chairman on Dec. 6 for “health reasons.” The party used to be headed by former governor Benigno R. Fitial, who stepped down as governor days before the start of his impeachment trial at the Senate.

The Democratic Party of the Northern Marianas, meanwhile, will hold a general membership meeting on Saturday, Feb. 22, at Garapan Central Park beginning at 4pm.

The highlights of this meeting include the election of Democratic Party Central Executive Committee members. It will also serve as a “gathering of friendship, partnership, fellowship and kinship” by the party.

The Democratic Party, in its public notice, invites those who want to join a “movement of political empowerment based on what you can do for your community rather than what your community can do for you.”

It invites those who, for example, are retirees suffering from the 25 percent cut in their pension and a 40 percent increase in insurance premium payments, victims of political retribution, or disappointed and disenfranchised Covenant or Republican members.

At present, the Legislature is filled with Independents, Republicans and members of the defunct Covenant Party.