Close the deal

4:20 p.m. this afternoon, I listened to Abdul Ali, on his show, telling Senator Nelson to have his bill to reduce the number of senators on the ballot along with SCGR proposal. Abdul stated he liked Positive’s bill better. You can imagine my shock to hear an Executive officer of SCGR publicly promoting opposition to SCGR initiative proposal.

To clarify the record: in 2013, I called Senator Nelson’s office. I directed Sonya to have Positive request a draft for reapportionment of the Legislature so as to pre-empt any Democrats. At the time and later in 2015 when SCGR held the panel on reapportionment, Senator Nelson did not understand reapportionment. He still doesn’t. In 2013 when I spoke to him, I recommended that he reviewed the structure for 11 that was in the Revised Organic Act to submit the draft request.

Retirees,

The 32nd Legislature had no confidence in the St. Croix Government Retirees. The success of the initiative petition surprised them. Supervisor Fawkes said a total of over 8,000 signatures were submitted, but they weren’t all valid registered voters at the time.

The objections from the senators were basically emotions, opinions and showing off, not law and facts. Senate President Myron Jackson was a member of the 5th Constitutional Convention with Gerard Emanuel and me. We all voted for a very similar reapportionment proposal then. Myron Jackson knows the information that Emanuel presented Tuesday evening because it was research presented at the constitution convention. Senate President Jackson is protecting the senators’ advantage with the present structure.

Senate President Jackson has implied that the Legislature may exercise the option of presenting their own proposal for reapportionment. The senators accused SCGR of being emotionally reactive to the hurricane by presenting the initiative. They also accused that we did no research for the proposal. What research, study, preparation are the senators doing NOW to write a Reapportionment proposal in this short period?

Let’s finish the work we started. Ask ALL family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, not to re-elect those senators who choose to ignore the thousands of people who signed the petition. Then, we must all go to the polls whenever the Initiative is placed on the ballot, and vote “yes” because our lives, and the lives of our generations to come depend on that vote.

Retirees, you did a fantastic job. Let’s finish it!
Thank you.