POLITICS permeates pretty much everything we do here on Guam. At least, it often seems that way. We barely have any breathing room after an election before the next one seems to be under way, and our government, from the Maga'låhi on down to the lowest ranking classified worker, is a political entity.

Gov. Eddie Calvo and Lt. Gov. Ray Tenorio are fond of saying that once they were certified and sworn into office, they left partisan politics at the door. But of course they didn’t – and probably couldn’t. There are supporters to reward, jobs and government contracts to be doled out, and decisions to be made every day that are affected by politics.

So we learn to deal with the ebb and flow, the back and forth of party and politics that has the Republicans in the front office and the Democrats criticizing from the sidelines, but with the reverse situation no more than an election or two away.

Right now the looming battle is for control of the Guam Legislature, where Democrats have a majority but the Republicans have high hopes of giving Gov. Calvo a majority of his own party for the last two years of his first term. That will preoccupy us from now until Nov. 6, for we love our politics, we’re close to our government leaders, and most of us enjoy the battle if only from the sidelines.

A recently enacted new law, however, allows politics to mix with the government of Guam to a greater extent than ever. Vice Speaker B.J. Cruz introduced the bill to modify the so-called Mini-Hatch Act, which governs the extent to which employees of the government may engage in partisan politics, to bring it into line with the Hatch Act as it affects federal employees. Lt. Gov. Tenorio signed it into law, and now government employees have more leeway to take an active role in the political party of their choice.

There’s no question anymore about the election of Education Department interim Superintendent Taling Taitano as Democratic National Committeewoman, for example, or Tommy Morrison to run for the Legislature while still heading up the Bureau of Budget and Management Research.

The new law has been in the works for four or five months. It provides a two-tier process for determining the allowed involvement of GovGuam employees, depending on where they work. There will be more restrictions imposed on police officers, for example, or employees of the Civil Service Commission itself. The new law will also allow GovGuam employees to work as election precinct officials, something that wasn’t permitted in the past. Employees are also now able to publicly endorse candidates, so long as they do not state their title, position or agency.

July 3 is the deadline for candidates to file for this year’s election, the official start of the season. We’re looking forward to it.