Good Morning, St. Croix!!
It’s kind of hard to tell where dirty campaign tricks end and truth begins during an election. There were rumors and lists circulating that the Governor had backed a full slate of Senatorial Candidates to go against the Crucian Senators who had questioned the Diageo Deal. Candidates went so far as to wear name tags identifying themselves as DeJongh Democrats and there was a core group of Government house employees who attended the rallies for those apparently anointed by the Governor.
The incumbent who are all savvy politicians weren’t afraid of the newcomers and some went so far as to circulate the lists and tell people to vote against the Governors Candidates as payback for an inept first two years. (St. Croix is really suffering economically.)
Officially, the Governor stayed out of the primary for reasons of “plausible deniability” and it was a darn good thing. Careful analysis of the result shows that the governors endorsement might have been worth a maximum 200 votes above what the candidate would have done on their own. Since he only tried to split the Democratic party in St. Croix, it left a sour taste in the mouths of many loyal Democrats and they pledge to remember his disruption of the Party in two years when he runs for reelection.
Well like any good politician, he lied and denied any involvement three times before the Newspapers went to press. The official version is that the voters of St. Croix never rejected his hand picked candidates because he was never involved at all. All these fine young candidates that ran with the Governor’s support ended up as very lonely losers as the voters of St. Croix rejected them in mass.
Tags: Diageo, Governor deJongh, St. Croix, Virgin Islands, Virgin Islands Election
