Mapp Promises Bombs And Missiles, But Albert Bryan Drops The First Explosive

Governor Kenneth Mapp had ostensibly set the tone for this election cycle when he vowed to rain bombs and missiles on his opponents. The comments were made while the governor was filing his election documents at the Election System’s office on St. Croix in May.

“We’re letting the others understand that it’s not going to be a cake walk; they’re coming to a real war so don’t come with no BB gun; don’t come with no sling shot [because] it’s missiles and bombs we have,” Mr. Mapp warned.

“And I don’t want nobody bawling because this is not an easy job; public scrutiny is not easy. All of us who have been in elected office, we’ve been subjected to the public light, and there are a number of folks running for this [the governor’s] office that have not had any public scrutiny in their lives.

“We also telling young folks, when they’re running for political office, if there’s something in your life that you’ve done that you don’t want to ever see on the front page of a newspaper, don’t run for public office.”

Those were strong comments, but Governor Mapp has yet to drop a significant bomb or missile on any of his opponents. In fact, it was another team considered to be the governor’s strongest challenger that dropped the first major ammunition of political war on the incumbent governor.

Last week, the Bryan-Roach campaign released a flyer ad showing members of Mr. Mapp’s family, including his brothers, in top positions of government. The ad went viral and sent a message that painted the current administration as one that hires not on merit, but connections. “The Bryan-Roach team believes Virgin Islanders should be hired for their résumé, not DNA,” reads the flyer ad.

The ad was described by someone in the Bryan-Roach campaign a major “body blow,” which this person believes painted the governor and his administration as a team that participates in nepotism.

Meanwhile, the man who promised the preemptive strike has yet to deliver a single explosive that hurt the opponent, even after uttering such fighting comments like the following: Politics “is not a church meeting,” Mr. Mapp said. “We’re not serving communion.”

He said as governor, he is subjected to abuse by the populace. “Well, if you run for the office, you should not wait until you get into the office to feel some of the abuse. You should feel it on the campaign — we’re just preparing you just in case, right? That’s the kind of fun we have to have,” Mr. Mapp said.

He added, “People also need to understand who is running for the office,” Mr. Mapp said. “So this year we want to talk about credit scores because you can’t want to handle billions of people’s dollars and then you can’t handle your few hundreds.”

November 6 is only six weeks away.