1. Fitial is being re-elected Governor of the CNMI. He's ahead by 500+ votes, and it seems unlikely (although not impossible) that the absentee ballots will change the outcome of the run-off election.
My previous post on the elections included these:
2009-11-02 The candidates
2009-11-19 On the Spoils System
2. Fitial's lawsuit has been dismissed. It challenged the federalization of the CNMI's immigration, claiming the Consolidated Natural Resources Act violated the Covenant by infringing the CNMI's right of self-government.
Some of my previous posts on this subject, including analysis of the merits of the lawsuit, are here:
2008-12-17 A brief recap of the pending motions
2009-03-11 On the amicus brief
I want to say bad news (Fitial's re-election), good news (dismissal of the federalization lawsuit), but I am reminded of the Chinese story about tao.
What I see as good is that we had an election and we will have a Governor chosen by more than 50% of the people.
What I see as good is that we have a system of justice where anyone can make their claim and have a judge review it, based on written laws and principles.
Who knows? Perhaps it will take 5 more years of Benigno Fitial for us to learn a bit more about the spoils system and what its harms are.
We will have the same 5 years in transition to U.S. immigration. We'll see how it unfolds.
