THIS must be the season for nominations.

In Tampa at the end of last month, the Republican Party formally
selected Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to be their standard bearers
in the upcoming U.S. presidential race, followed last week by the Democrats’ enthusiastic endorsement of President Obama and Vice President Biden to stand against them.

Here on Guam, our own parties finalized their selections for senatorial and delegate candidates, although the lack of real
competition did make the whole thing rather undramatic.

Never one to be outdone, Gov. Eddie Calvo has now put forward a nomination of his own – his chief legal counsel, Maria Teresa Bonifacio Cenzon, as a judge on the Superior Court.

As reported elsewhere in today’s Variety, judge-nominee Cenzon comes to the post with an outstanding set of credentials, having gotten her undergraduate degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis., followed by a law degree from the prestigious Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

After graduation, she returned to Guam and immediately started working in her chosen field, first as a clerk at Barcinas & Terlaje P.C., soon thereafter as a partner in the commercial transactions division of Mair, Mair, Spade & Thompson P.C. where she worked for more than 10 years, and then as a partner at Cabot Mantanona LLP in 2008, and Carlsmith Ball LLP in 2009.

In 2010 Cenzon became the director of Policy, Planning & Community Relations for the Unified Judiciary of Guam, and in late 2011 the governor appointed her as his chief legal counsel.

The respect and warmth Gov. Calvo feels for Judge-nominee Cenzon was evident in his remarks to the crowd of reporters, editors, senators and others who gathered yesterday morning in his office for the announcement of her nomination ... and even more so in the appointment letter he wrote to the Legislature. For example, he wrote:

“She is a compassionate woman, devoted to her family, pure of heart, and with unquestionable ethics and integrity. She is someone children can look up to and aspire to be. She is a role model, whose character is unassailable and whose judgment can always be trusted.”

You get the idea.

It was obvious, however, that the governor won’t have much trouble at all selling his nominee to the Legislature. All six Republican senators were there in support of her, along with Sens. Palacios and Rodriguez from the Democratic side of the aisle, making for a legislative majority of eight.

Perhaps the most moving part of the announcement ceremony, however, came from the short remarks offered by the judge ominee’s father, Ed Cenzon. He quoted the famous Lebanese-American poet, Kahlil Gibran:

“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.”

He then added a few words of his own that were equally profound, “Your children, thank goodness for them. Enjoy them and be forever thankful because they shall forever not be yours.”

It struck us that, intentionally or unintentionally, these heart-felt words could apply very well not only to a proud father recognizing his daughter’s accomplishments and intelligence, but also to a governor appointing a new judge who we all hope will think for herself and be a model of judicial fairness and independence.

So congratulations, judge-nominee Cenzon. We wish you a heartfelt, if slightly premature, welcome to the bench.