WHICH of the following groups do you feel the Guam Legislature should pay the most attention to: We Are Guåhan, the Guam Chamber of Commerce, or the voters of Guam? If you are a normal citizen and in the vast majority of the electorate, of course you chose the last category. Perhaps we should remind the senators who they really work for. They work for you, the voting public. The voting public is far smarter than the stupid yes or no questions those two lobbying groups put out recently. Finally, stupid questions have united the shallow radicals and the know-it-all business interests. Luckily the public is sophisticated enough to spot stupid questions. But there is another side to this issue.

The voting public was far less worried about the military buildup than a lot of leaders might have thought or believed. We have actively looked at public opinion on the buildup for several years. A strong majority of the public supports the buildup, "the sky is falling" tactics of the off-island teenage Facebook based radicals failed, and the public is pretty pragmatic about what an increase in Marines means for Guam. In general, these two lobbying groups should be made to buy ads to publish their bogus polls. These “polls” are not news. And the Legislature needs to more closely follow majority voter sentiment on major issues. The public has a point of tolerance for bad politics. I don’t think the public has reached that point yet, but if conditions do not improve, it will. The reason is fiestas.

The 2012 elections are fairly low-energy, off-year affairs. In 2014, we will elect or re-elect a governor and the general election falls on a critical five-day holiday cycle. In 2014, Halloween will be on a Friday, All Souls' Day on Saturday, Sunday for church, Monday for All Souls' Day observed as a government holiday, then Tuesday is election day. If there is going to be a backlash toward the Legislature over failing on the military buildup, it will happen in this long weekend in early November 2014. The key question is: Will the Legislature pay attention?

Last Friday, I had a long 90-minute meeting with Delegate Bordallo on the 2012 elections and related federal relations items. I have spoken to her a number of times and her knowledge and experience in Guam politics is incredible. As I have said on other occasions, about seven years ago I served as the congressional ambassador for the Guam Unit of the American Cancer Society. Bordallo’s staff helped us to place the Guam luminaries on the U.S. Capitol park steps. In almost every case, Bordallo actually knew the people on these memorials and she also knew their families. It was amazing. We had a very good talk on Friday and I always learn a lot in these meetings.

On Saturday night I attended the Democrat Jefferson-Jackson dinner at the Leo Palace Resort. It was a very nice event and I was pleased to see the Democrats celebrate their party unity. I was also pleased to see Karlo Dizon and Madeline celebrate their mutual Democrat interests. One of the gossip points I heard at this meeting was that Karlo had returned to Guam and wanted to run for the Legislature. Since he had been away, he no longer met the five year Organic Act-based residency requirement. The local law may be amended to better fit cases like this for the purposes of running for office. We have a lot of residents who live off-island and may want to return to run for office.