2014 Northern Mariana Islands general election

Gubernatorial election

4 November 2014 (first round) 21 November 2014 (runoff)

Nominee Eloy Inos Heinz Hofschneider Party Republican Independent Running mate Ralph Torres Ray Naraja Yumul Popular vote 6,547 4,948 Percentage 56.96% 43.04%

Results by voting district: Eloy Inos:      50–55%      55–60%      60–65%      65–70%      >95% Heinz Hofschneider:      50–55%

Governor before election Eloy Inos Republican Elected Governor Eloy Inos Republican

House election

All 20 seats in the House of Representatives 11 seats needed for a majority

Party Seats Republican 13 Independents 7 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

Senate election

6 of the 9 seats in the Senate 5 seats needed for a majority

Party Seats Republican 7 Independents 2 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

Politics of the Northern Mariana Islands
Governor Arnold Palacios Lieutenant Governor David M. Apatang Legislature Senate House of Representatives Political parties Political party strength Elections: 2009, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 U.S. Congressional elections 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022
Politics of the United States  Politics portal

General elections were held in the Northern Mariana Islands on 4 November, 2014. Voters elected the Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Lieutenant Governor, the Attorney General, the Delegate to the US Congress, the Senate, the House of Representatives, mayors, municipal councils and the Board of Education. Additionally, a referendum involving changes to the constitution was held.^[1]

Incumbent Republican Governor Eloy Inos was re-elected, facing two independent challengers and one Democratic challenger. The next lieutenant governor was elected on the same ticket, with incumbent Jude Hofschneider not running for re-election. As no candidate got a majority, a runoff was held on 21 November, 2014.^[2] This election was the first time since 2001 that the Covenant Party, which dissolved in 2013, was not on the ballot. It also marked the first time since 1999 that only two political parties would compete in the elections, marking a return to a two-party system similar to that of the United States rather than the multi-party system, which began back in 1999 when the now dissolved Reform Party was first formed and went on to win a stunning victory by managing to elect Senator Ramon Deleon Guerrero to the senate,^[3] that had defined the CNMI for nearly 15 years. The Democratic Party would not win a single seat in the legislature until 2020 and would not compete for the governorship until 2022.

Background

The previous election was held in 2009 for a 5-year term,^[4] in order to move all elections to even years. Covenant Party candidate Benigno Repeki Fitial was re-elected; his running mate Eloy Inos was elected to his first full term as lieutenant governor. Fitial resigned as governor in February 2013 in the face of impeachment hearings.^[5] Inos thus became governor. In September 2013, he took steps to merge the Covenant Party with the territorial Republican Party, and ran for re-election as a Republican.^[6]

Gubernatorial election

Eloy Inos, the incumbent republican governor was re-elected.^[2] He was challenged by the speaker of the house and 2009 candidate, Heinz Sablan Hofschneider, former governor Juan Babauta (both running as independents), and democratic candidate Edward Masga Deleon Guerrero, former ports authority executive director.^[7]

Delegate to the US House of Representatives

Incumbent Delegate Gregorio Sablan was re-elected. He caucuses with the Democratic Party, but ran as an Independent. Sablan was challenged by democrat Andrew Salas, a former territorial representative and Commerce Secretary.^[2]

Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Legislature

The 2014 elections are for the 19th Legislature

Results Summary

Parties		House Election Results		Seat Change	Party Strength
		2012	2014	+/−	Strength
	Independent	12	13	1	65.00%
	Republican	4	7	3	35.00%
	Covenant (Dissolved)	4	0	4	0.00%
	Democratic	0	0		0.00%
Totals		20	20		100.00%

Parties		Senate Election Results			Seat Change	Party Strength
		2012	2013[8][lower-alpha 1]	2014	+/−	Strength
	Republican	5	5 ()	7	2	77.78%
	Independent	4	3 (1)	2	1	22.22%
	Democratic	0	0 ()	0		0.00%
	Covenant (Dissolved)	0	0 ()	0		0.00%
	Vacant	0	1 (1)	0	1	0.00%
Totals		9	9	9		100.00%

Mayors

All four mayoral posts were up for election across the Commonwealth.

Attorney General

Municipal Council

Board of Education

Referendum

The general elections included three referendum questions, two of which involved legislative initiative amendments to the constitution. The constitutional amendments were to:

• article XV, subsection 1(e) of the constitution to increase the minimum proportion of the Commonwealth general-revenue budget spent on primary and secondary education from 15% to 25%. H.L.I. 18-12.^[9]
• amend article XII, section 4 to redefine "persons of Northern Mariana Islands descent" as being someone who has "some degree of Northern Mariana Chamorro or Northern Mariana Carolinan blood", as opposed to the current requirement of at least 25% bloodline. H.L.I. 18-1.^[1]

An amendment proposed by legislative initiative shall become effective if approved by a majority of the votes cast. N.M.I. Const. art. XVIII, § 5(b).

The other referendum asked voters whether a Constitutional Convention should be convened to propose amendments to the constitution. H.B. 18-5.^[1]

The Constitutional Convention proposal would have required two-thirds of the votes cast to be approved. N.M.I. Const. art. XVIII, § 2(c).

Notes

References

External links

• Juan Babauta
• Heinz Hofschneider
• Gregorio Sablan
• Andrew Salas