By Troy Torres
(Tumon, Guam) Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero's chief of staff, Anthony Babauta, has been using his connections in Washington, D.C. to guide negative reports against Guam's congressman, Michael San Nicolas, according to sources in the nation's capital.
A series of reports coming out of Washington, D.C. have targeted the young congressman, in the advent of his historic triumph to finally get war claims paid after 75 years if Guam's greatest generation waiting. Most have died waiting for previous congressmen, including Mr. San Nicolas's predecessor Madeleine Bordallo, to fulfill promises that have gone empty. Until now.
The United States Senate now is on the verge of passing the war claims legislation, sending the measure to President Trump, who reportedly will sign the measure into law.
Despite what will be an historic triumph by Mr. San Nicolas, his critics have pointed out his voting record in the committees, where he is a member. KUAM's Chris Barnett has been particularly brutal with Mr. San Nicolas.
Mr. Barnett has criticized Mr. San Nicolas's office budget, which is paid by federal funds, yet has failed to point out the amount of money Guam's taxpayers have forked out to pay the salary and office of Guam's DC liaison, Ms. Bordallo.
The irony in this narrative is that Ms. Bordallo admitted to actively lobbying against Guam's congressman earlier this year in Washington, D.C., as Mr. San Nicolas was trying to get the war claims measure through the U.S. House of Representatives. Even more ironic? All he was doing was fixing a mistake Ms. Bordallo left behind and failed to mention prior to last year's election, where she was swept out of office in the Primary Election by Mr. San Nicolas.
Guam's media has not scrutinized Ms. Leon Guerrero's waste of local money to conduct federal affairs that, thus far, has been a dismal failure and an obstruction to Mr. San Nicolas's progress. The taxpayers do not only pay Ms. Bordallo's salary, but that of Governor's Office employees who assist her, her travel, the Governor's travel, travel perks, etc.
"Tony Babauta has been pulling all the strings out here through his networks to get the negative publicity you've been seeing against your congressman," the Washington source told Kandit News.
"It's not really a big secret that he's gunning for the guy's job," the source said referring to rumors of Mr. Babauta's aspiration to mount a campaign in the coming weeks and months against Mr. San Nicolas to be Guam's delegate to Congress. "They're trying to find any way to poke holes in Congressman San Nicolas's armor so they can take him down and put Tony in there. Just typical Washington-style politics, I know."
Comments