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The 2014 Northern Mariana Islands general election were held on Tuesday, 4 November, 2014. The election coincided with the 2014 United States midterm elections. Voters in the Northern Mariana Islands voted for the Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, the non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives, attorney general, 6 seats in the Northern Mariana Islands Senate, all twenty seats in the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives, 4 mayors, seats for the municipal council, and seats for 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.
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]
Eloy Inos, the incumbent republican governor was re-elected. 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]
|- style="background:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;"!colspan="2" rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Party!rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Candidate!rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Running mate!colspan="2" | First round!colspan="2" | Second round |- style="background:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;"!width="60" | Votes!width="30" | %!width="65" | Votes!width="30" | % |- |style="background:" | |style="text-align:left;" | Republican |style="text-align:left;" | Eloy Songao Inos (incumbent) |style="text-align:left;" | Ralph Deleon Guerrero Torres
| |% | |% |- |style="background:" | |style="text-align:left;" | Independent |style="text-align:left;" | Heinz Sablan Hofschneider |style="text-align:left;" | Ray Naraja Yumul | |% | |% |- |style="background:" | |style="text-align:left;" | Independent |style="text-align:left;" | Juan Nekai Babauta |style="text-align:left;" | Juan Sablan Torres | |% |colspan="2" rowspan="2" style="background:#E9E9E9" | |- |style="background:" | |style="text-align:left;" | Democratic |style="text-align:left;" | Edward Masga Deleon Guerrero |style="text-align:left;" | Daniel Ogo Quitugua
| |% |- |colspan="8" style="background:#E9E9E9" | |-!colspan="4" style="text-align:left;" | Total!!100%!!100% |- |colspan="8" style="background:#E9E9E9" | |-
See main article: United States House of Representatives election in the Northern Mariana Islands, 2014. 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. While not quite as massive as his 2012 victory, Sablan managed to win yet another landslide with nearly two-thirds of the vote over his Democratic competitor.[10]
The 2014 elections are for the 19th Legislature
| Parties | House Election Results | Seat Change | Party Strength | - style ="background:#e9e9e9" | 2012 | 2014 | +/− | Strength | - | align = center | 12 | align = center | 13 | align = center | 1 | align = center | 65.00% | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align = center | 4 | align = center | 7 | align = center | 3 | align = center | 35.00% | - | Covenant (Dissolved) | align = center | 4 | align = center | 0 | align = center | 4 | align = center | 0.00% | - | align = center | 0 | align = center | 0 | align = center | align = center | 0.00% | - style = "background:#ccc" | Totals | 20 | 20 | 100.00% | |||||||||
The Northern Mariana Islands Senate is the upper house of the Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Legislature, consisting of nine senators representing three senatorial districts (Saipan & the Northern Islands, Tinian & Aguijan, and Rota), each a Multi-member district with three senators. Each district had two seats open for the 2014 elections. The third district also hosted a special election for one seat.
The Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives is the lower house of the Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Legislature. The house has seven districts and five of the seven are Multi-member district.
All four mayoral posts were up for election across the Commonwealth.
On June 2, 2014, incumbent Saipan Mayor Donald Flores, then in his second term, died in office following a stroke.[12] Governor Eloy Inos appointed Marian Deleon Guerrero Tudela as acting Mayor of Saipan on June 3, 2014, to serve for the remainder of Flores' unexpired term, which would end in January 2015.[13] [12] Ramon B. Camacho, the chairman of the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council, served as acting mayor until Tudela could return from Arizona to take the oath of office.[13] Tudela had been living in Arizona at the time of her appointment in order to take care of her great-granddaughter.[14] Inos cited her second place finish in the 2009 mayoral election as a reason for her appointment.[12] She promised to retain all of Flores' existing staff during her term.[12] Marian Tudela was sworn into office on June 8, 2014, by Governor Eloy Inos during a ceremony at the Coral Ocean Point Resort.[14] She became the first female mayor of Saipan, as well as the first female mayor of any municipality in the Northern Mariana Islands in history.[14] [15] Tudela declined to run for a full term.
This was the first election in which the Attorney General was an elected position.[16] Edward Manibusan, the former presiding judge of the Superior Court, defeated attorney Michael N. Evangelista handily. Manibusan won all but Tanapag and Rota in the general election.[17]
The general elections included three referendum questions, two of which involved legislative initiative amendments to the constitution. The constitutional amendments were to:
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).
| Referendum Questions | For | Against | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |
| Calling a Constitutional Convention (required two-thirds of votes cast) | 7,859 | 66.01% | 4,046 | 33.99% |
| Constitutional amendment on education spending (required majority of votes cast) | 8,082 | 66.56% | 4,060 | 33.44% |
| Constitutional amendment on the definition of descent (required majority of votes cast) | 6,177 | 52.34% | 5,624 | 47.66% |