ST. CROIX — After dropping off their nomination petitions to the Elections System of the Virgin Islands in both island districts for the past week, aspirants who would like to run for various public and political party offices had their last chance to file by Tuesday’s deadline.
ESVI staff have been accepting nomination petitions from individuals seeking to run for the public offices of senator and delegate to Congress in addition to serving as members on the Board of Elections and the Board of Education.
Residents have also been filing nomination papers to serve as delegates on the Sixth Constitutional Convention.
The party offices include Democrats running for state chair, district chair and as members of the Territorial Committee.
Now that all the nomination petitions have been filed, ESVI staff will review them to determine whether the aspirants met all the requirements to be able to run for office.
A steady flow of aspirants walked into the Elections System offices on St. Croix and St. Thomas during the final hour before Tuesday’s 6 p.m. deadline to submit their nomination petitions, providing an opportunity for WTJX to interview them about why they chose to run for public office.
Those seeking to run for a seat in the 36th Legislature include sitting senators, former senators and residents who have never run for the position.
The former senators who filed to run in the senatorial race on St. Croix are Kurt Vialet, Genevieve Whitaker, Norman Jn Baptiste, Oakland Benta and Nereida Rivera-O’Reilly, according to the unofficial aspirant listing for public and party offices in the St. Croix District.
Vialet, a former four-term senator, ran for governor during the 2022 election with former Senator Janelle Sarauw as his running mate.
Whitaker, who served in the 34th Legislature, was not re-elected to serve a second term.
Jn Baptiste, a former teacher who served five consecutive terms in the Senate, hasn’t sat in the Legislature since winning his last election in 2006.
Benta, a former St. Croix police chief who served one term in the 33rd Legislature, ran as running mate with gubernatorial candidate Kent Bernier Sr. in 2022. If he gets elected, Benta said he will focus on health care, balancing the budget and getting a permanent hospital built, or bringing a floating hospital to St. Croix until construction concludes on the new Governor Juan F. Luis Hospital and Medical Center.
Rivera-O’Reilly, who served five terms in the Senate up until 2018 during the 32nd Legislature, said she’s ready to serve again because she feels she has been called to return to the lawmaking body to give St. Croix a voice.
“It is obvious that the people of St. Croix are feeling left out of the equation, and throughout my service I was an advocate for the island of St. Croix and for its people,” she said. “And when you look around at the infrastructure and you look at our health-care system, it is obvious that St. Croix needs attention, and I’m hoping to bring a voice for the people of St. Croix if successful.”
The list of aspirants who submitted nomination papers include individuals running for the first time in both island districts to serve in the Senate as well as on the Board of Elections and the Board of Education.
On St. Croix, they include nine individuals who submitted petitions to run for Senate. They are Diane Prosper, attorney Russell Pate, Clifford Joseph, Krystal Hardy, Jelani Ritter, Eric Gautreau II, Justin Smith, Tammy Smith, and Lisa Charles.
Justin Smith, a 14-year St. Croix resident from Indianapolis who runs a nonprofit organization founded in 2021 called Lion Haven that offers after-school programs for at-risk youth, said he is running for Senate so he can connect with lawmakers to gain access to additional funding to support the youth.
“My main focus is youth enrichment/youth empowerment, fitness and sports tourism,” he said, noting a need to work with other senators to address issues like the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority or the roads. “I look forward to getting a better understanding of the behind-the-scenes nature of some of those issues and understanding not just how they work but then best ways to kind of attack that.”
Tammy Smith said she wants to run for Senate to bring a fresh perspective into the Legislature.
“I just feel that we need a new set of people, new voice, new ears, new everything,” she said.
Discussing issues she would like to address, Tammy Smith said her focus would be on mental health, youth empowerment, senior citizens, and infrastructure.
Charles, who works in the Office of Senior Citizen Affairs within the Virgin Islands Department of Human Services, said she would like to focus on the aged and disabled residents if elected to the Senate. She said she would also focus her efforts on the youth.
“If we don’t have some place, a safe haven for all three of those people to go, you’re running a risk of having a fail,” she said, stressing the need to offer health insurance for those who can’t afford it or can’t quality for Medicaid.
Others who submitted nomination petitions to run for public office for their first time on St. Croix would like to serve on the Board of Elections or the Board of Education. Those who would like to run for a seat on the Board of Elections for the first time are Cleopatra Peter, Franz Christian Jr., Cornelius JnBaptiste, Anthony Mardenborough Jr., Simone James, and Michael Joseph, who landed a seat on the board following the death of former board member Glenn Webster. St. Croix Deputy Supervisor of Elections Terrell Alexandre submitted nomination papers to serve on the Board of Education.
In the St. Thomas/St. John District, the first-time aspirants who submitted petitions to run for Senate are Michael Smith, Collister Fahie, Derrick Callwood, Avery Lewis, Francis Serieux, and Dr. Krishna Kilaru, according to the unofficial aspirant listing for public and party offices in the St. Thomas/St. John District.
Kilaru succinctly discussed why he would like to run for Senate.
“I’m running because there needs to be a physician on the Senate in order to fix the health-care issues that the Virgin Islands is facing,” he said.
The St. Thomas/St. John District also has other individuals who submitted petitions to serve on the Board of Elections and Board of Education for the first time. Those who filed papers to become members of the Board of Elections are Ida Brown, Barbara LaRonde, Chaneel Callwood, and Henry Arthur Jr. Sophia del Rosario submitted papers to serve on the Board of Education, which is composed of four members from St. Croix, four members from St. Thomas, and one at-large member from St. John. None of the aspirants who filed to run for a seat on the board are from St. John.
If all the nomination petitions for aspirants seeking to serve as delegate to Congress get approved, Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett, of St. Croix, would have two challengers, including one from each district. She ran unopposed for re-election in 2022. On St. Croix, her challenger would be Ronald Pickard. Her challenger in the St. Thomas/St. John District would be Ida Smith.
Those who would like to serve as delegates on the Sixth Constitutional Convention from the St. Croix District are Michael Springer, Maria Nieves, Johann Clendenin, former Senator Usie Richards, John Abramson Jr., former Senator Lilliana Belardo de O’Neal, Rupert Ross Jr., former Senator Ronald Russell, John Canegata, Bernadette Patricia Welcome, Dianna Osborne, former Licensing and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Devin Carrington, Sheila Scullion, and Raymond James, according to the unofficial aspirant listing for delegates in the St. Croix District.
The Sixth Constitutional Convention will be composed of 15 delegates, including seven from St. Croix, seven from St. Thomas, and one from St. John, according to the law establishing the convention, Bill No. 34-0153 (Act No. 8681). There are, however, only four aspirants from St. Thomas/St. John District who filed nomination petitions to serve as delegates.
Those who would like to serve as at-large delegates on the Sixth Constitutional Convention include three aspirants from St. John — Hugo Roller, Hadiya Sewer and Alecia Wells, Board of Elections chair, according to the unofficial aspirant listing for delegates. The St. Thomas/St. John District has four individuals who submitted papers to run as delegates to the Sixth Constitutional Convention — David Silverman, Rudel Hodge Jr., Democratic State Chair Stedmann Hodge Jr., and Arturo Watlington Jr., a Board of Elections member.
