gets a free ride

Elections

Underwood gets a free ride

By David North

Two things are sure about Guam s November election: * the island will get a new Governor, and * 11 Wlll kee P lts Congressman, Bob Underwood.

Guam voters, like those of American ’ .

Samoa ( and the American Mainland) will go to the polls on November 8; the ones on Guam will select a replacement for the retmng, two-term Republican Governor, Joe Ada, who can not run for a third con secutive term.

But Guam’s voters will not, as they usu ally do in even-numbered years, be picking a Congressman. They will not because freshman Democrat Bob Underwood has become so popular in his first two years in Congress that no one, Republican or Democrat, was willing to run against him.

This feat has not been seen in the US Flag

PaCiflC SinCC Sam ° an ConBressman Foro L F. Sunia, and another Democrat, did it in 1982, after his first two years in Washington. Guam’s voters, however, will have many other races to decide.

First, there is the governorship, where the Democratic candidate is a long-time territorial senator, Carl Gutierrez, and his opponent is Republican Tommie Tanaka, another senator Each of the gubernatorial -uwuici BUUIUI.UIUI ui un. guuv-uwiuiiiu candidates has a woman, and a state senator, as his running mate for the office of Lt Governor; they are Democrat Madeleine Bordallo, widow of the former Governor, Ricky Bordaloo who shot himself rather than go to a Mainland prison, and Republican Doris Brooks, who has been in the Senate for several years.

Gutierrez comes to the race with what may be a major handicap, a sex scandal involving him and a teenage girl; his running mate, however, is in touch with the remnants of political machine her late husband created over the years, and this

should help the Democrats. These two candidates beat two other senators, Eddie Reyes and Gloria Nelson, in the September Democratic primary.

Tanaka is the reform candidate in the race; he and Senator Brooks also had a pri mary contests, defeating incumbent Lt Governor Frank Bias (Ada’s favourite) and Lt Governor candidate Simon Sanchez.

With six of the sitting 21 members of the Legislature leaving it to run for Governor or Lt Governor there will be plenty of room for newcomers in that body, which is elected every two years.

The Democrats usually have the majority, and this year the Republicans had to scramble to get enough candidates (one more than 21) to have a primary election for these nominations.

Guam’s Legislature is probably the only one in the Pacific, and one of a tiny hand ful in the world, where all the candidates are chosen at large in a classic first-past the-post election; they all could live in the same neighbourhood - but, in fact, do not.

Guam’s elections are more similar to those of Hawaii, and the US Mainland, than they are to those of other Pacific islands.

Guam has a well developed two-party system, and has a tradition (along Mainland lines) of electing a large number

of women to high office. This year, for, example a woman will be elected Lt Governor only because women are run ning for that office; usually six to eight women serve in the 21-member legisla ture.

Guam politics, while stimulating, has none of the drama of either Samoa or Saipan, partially because Joe Ada has kept things down to a dull roar. Yes, Guam’s government is in the red, but the territory meets its payroll regularly, which can not be said for the hard-pressed American Samoan government. Yes, Guam has had a governmental scandal now and again, but they have been minor compared to the endless series of corrupt practices rou

tinely reported during the recently con

cluded reign of CNMI’s former Governor, Lorenzo Guerrero. Ada is young enough, and popular enough, so that he may be in another race for Governor four years hence.

Why did Underwood get a free ride so early in his career? A respected educator, he had never held elective office until two years ago when he defeated the sitting

(and somewhat stodgy) Republican

Congressman, Ben Blaz, a retired general in the US Marines.

Underwood is bright, smooth, good looking, and hardworking which always

helps. More importantly he captured, as

Blaz had not, a sense of the Guamanians’ frustration with Washington. He is an out spoken advocate of Chamorro rights, and has worked loudly and effectively to get the US military establishment to give back some of its vast landholdings on the island.

He was making good progress with his bill on this subject when the deadline passed for filing against him in the elec tion; it was only later that his H.R. 2144 passed the US Senate (where Guam has no voice at all).The bill calls for the transfer, at no cost to Guam, of 3200 acres of excess military land. Underwood, earlier in the year, blocked an effort by the feder al Department of Interior to gain control of the land in question.

Guam’s politics rarely get much Mainland attention, but every two years there is a brief flurry of interest - it is all a matter of timing. Since Guam lies west of the International Dateline, it is the first US place to vote, and a winner is being announced just as the Mainlanders head for the polls. The opposite is true with American Samoa, which is the last American flag jurisdiction to vote, and the winners there are usually ignored by the Mainland press. ■