ST. CROIX — Four Democratic candidates for delegate to Congress faced pointed questions about their records and past scrutiny during a debate as they laid out competing plans to address the territory’s most pressing federal issues: stalled hurricane recovery funding, healthcare financing gaps, mail delivery delays, and rising violent crime.
The debate, hosted by WTJX and The Virgin Islands Consortium ahead of the August 1 Democratic primary, brought together former Senator Emmett Hansen, former Senator Janelle Sarauw, former U.S. Attorney Delia Smith, and Teri Helenese, former director of state-federal relations and Washington representative for the Office of the Governor.
The moderators — WTJX NewsFeed radio news reporter Marcellina Ventura-Douglas and Consortium publisher Ernice Gilbert — pressed each candidate on their records during a 90-minute debate recorded on July 15 at WTJX’s St. Croix television studio and premiered Tuesday night on WTJX-TV, Channel 12 and its social media platforms. Smith was questioned about a 2024 hearing on her professional conduct during a major criminal prosecution, as well as a subsequent federal court order reprimanding her office.
The candidates also discussed their positions on disaster recovery, the future of the Insular Cases and territorial constitutional rights, working with the Trump administration, Medicaid funding formulas, postal service reform, and the Board of Elections’ decision to place the delegate race on this year’s local ballot despite a federal law requiring separate ballots.
Smith was questioned about a May 2024 order from U.S. District Judge Mark Kearney arising out of the federal prosecution of Ivan James and co-defendants on drug and firearms charges. According to the order, the U.S. Attorney’s Office missed a December 2023 deadline to file public, redacted versions of sealed case documents.
At issue were eight court documents that prosecutors, along with defendants, had kept hidden from public view with no real justification. The judge ordered the government to unseal them, with only narrow redactions, by December 21, 2023.
The deadline came and went. Prosecutors did not file the documents and did not ask for an extension. Only after the judge issued a follow-up order demanding compliance, and raised the prospect of sanctions, did the office turn over most of what it owed except one document.
Pressed to explain the delay, the prosecution’s story kept changing. First they said they tried to file electronically on December 18, 2023, but were blocked by a systemwide technical outage. Then they admitted the attempt actually happened on December 21, 2023 — the deadline itself — with no explanation for the three days in between. Smith also told the judge her office tried to hand deliver a paper copy to the clerk’s office but was turned away.
However, according to Kearney’s order, the court confirmed no electronic issues on filing with the clerk’s office during the relevant period, that the U.S. Attorney’s Office had successfully filed other documents during those same days, and that no clerk’s office employee recalled anyone attempting to submit the filing in person.
It was then revealed that associate attorneys and paralegals who accompanied Smith to the hearing left behind Post-it notes contradicting her, stating flatly that they “did not take anything” to the clerk’s office — they only called.
Confronted with her own staff’s notes, Smith called her sworn account “regrettable” and claimed she’d meant to say her office “contacted” the clerk’s office, not hand delivered documents. Yet, she never formally withdrew her original story.
Asked at the debate what responsibility she accepted in the matter, Smith focused on the malfunction of the electronic filing system and did not directly address Kearney’s findings that her office had misled the court.
“The court was not satisfied and considered it misleading that we could not file the document because the court’s electronic system had malfunctioned,” she said.
Pressed by the debate’s moderator specifically on the podium Post-it notes, which the court cited as contradicting the government’s account, Smith did not directly address the discrepancy and maintained there was an issue with the electronic filing system. She said the dispute was ultimately resolved when her office presented testimony from an intelligence analyst manager showing that electronic filing outages had affected court systems nationally, not just in the territory.
“Only then did the court accept that this filing error or malfunction was not an intentional act on behalf of the government,” Smith said. “And I have never seen this type of reaction from a judge. But it is not within my purview nor my authority to question a judge’s ruling. If he says he wasn’t satisfied, we went as far as we could, bringing in all of the experts to show the error was not with the United States; it was with the national filing system.”
However, Kearney’s order reflected that the issue was not with the court’s system but with Smith’s office.
An information technology employee from the U.S. Attorney’s Office testified about a systemwide problem arising from the U.S. Department of Justice only maintaining eight total IP addresses for security reasons and to prevent hacking. He explained the limited IP access may cause the electronic filing system to deny access if more than 60 users from the same IP address all access the filing system within the same minute, noting the lockout lasts for 30 minutes.
Two other candidates were questioned about past legal matters.
Sarauw was asked about a 2018 domestic violence incident between her and her then girlfriend and a more recent Florida court proceeding last month in which a judge denied a restraining order petition against her while finding a pattern of mutual physical conflict between the parties. Sarauw apologized to voters, describing the incident as what she called “reactive abuse.”
“It was proven that there were constant moments of acts of abuse initiated, and then when I reacted, that became the problem,” she said. “The lesson learned is knowing when to, for lack of a better word, cancel the order.”
Helenese faced questions about a temporary restraining order obtained against her under the Domestic Violence Act and later dismissed after a settlement, as well as a 2012 lawsuit filed by the same person alleging she had sent a defamatory email. She said the restraining order stemmed from a man who falsely claimed to be separated from his wife and did not want Helenese speaking with her.
“This was not even ever litigated because there was no marital connection between me and that person, and me and that person’s wife,” she said.
Hansen was asked why voters should believe he is prepared to build and run an effective congressional office given that he is the only delegate to Congress candidate without a campaign website despite citing communication strategy and web development experience. Hansen pointed to problems with an “old computer” he replaced and poor internet speeds, noting he has participated in debates and has kept his Facebook page updated.
“The thing is that I am not running to be anybody’s webmaster,” Hansen said, adding that he is running based on his time serving at his own expense on the Democratic National Committee.
Candidates agreed that preset federal disaster-recovery awards have not kept pace with the territory’s actual rebuilding costs. Smith said future funding requests need to account for local shipping, materials, and real estate costs and pledged to work directly with federal entities. Hansen said the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s cost estimates rely on stateside pricing that does not reflect Virgin Islands conditions. Sarauw called for a Government Accountability Office review of FEMA’s approval backlog and a congressional delegation visit, while Helenese said she would pursue additional appropriations through Congress.
All four candidates said they intended to work with the Trump administration despite party differences, citing existing relationships with federal agencies and a shared interest in prioritizing the territory over partisan politics. On the Insular Cases and territorial constitutional rights, Sarauw said she would partner with advocacy groups such as Right to Democracy, while Smith and Helenese both said meaningful change would ultimately require an act of Congress. Hansen said the Virgin Islands must stop just saying “you’re treating me badly,” and instead prove that Washington is “withholding our investment in ourselves,” pointing to unequal Social Security payments and access to Medicare and veterans’ benefits as concrete evidence of second-class treatment.
On the Board of Elections’ decision to place the delegate race on the same ballot as local races, despite a federal law requiring separate ballots, all four candidates said the law should have been followed, though none said they had formally challenged the decision.
On Medicaid, Sarauw and Helenese both called for eliminating Section 1108 of the Social Security Act, which they said caps federal funding well below the territory’s needs. Smith said the more immediate obstacle is the territory’s inability to cover its required 17% local match and called for modernizing the local billing system to reduce uncompensated care costs. Hansen said improving healthcare requires hiring qualified professionals and ensuring they have the necessary tools.
On mail service, Smith and Helenese both pointed to the territory’s administrative pairing with Puerto Rico as a source of delay, with Smith proposing the two be separated so the Virgin Islands can secure dedicated postal resources. Sarauw proposed developing a mail hub on St. Croix’s south shore using the territory’s Free Trade Zone. Hansen suggested uniting with the other U.S. territories and taking the issue to the board that manages the postmaster general.
When the candidates were asked if they would seek more federal intervention on local crime matters, Hansen called for a dedicated Coast Guard cutter to be stationed in the territory rather than Puerto Rico to combat the trafficking of guns and drugs. Smith stressed the need to reinforce federal and local law enforcement partnerships that she noted have worked in the past. Helenese pointed to identified federal funding for law enforcement and youth programs, while Sarauw called for greater transparency around how Caribbean Basin Security Initiative funds are allocated locally for greater protection of territorial borders.
The Democratic primary election is scheduled for August 1. So far 901 voters have cast their ballots on St. Croix, and 842 in the St. Thomas/St. John district during early voting.
