{"id":54256,"date":"2017-07-07T22:40:36","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T22:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=54256"},"modified":"2017-07-13T21:54:05","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T21:54:05","slug":"janelle-sarauw-to-take-oath-of-office-on-july-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=54256","title":{"rendered":"Janelle Sarauw To Take Oath Of Office On July 14"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. THOMAS — The 32nd Legislature will meet on July 14 to swear in the April 8 special election winner, Janelle Sarauw, following the Superior Court’s decision granting Ms. Sarauw writ mandamus<\/span><\/a> by ordering the St. Thomas-St. John District Board of Elections to perform its “ministerial” duty of certifying the election.<\/p>\n

“Pursuant to the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands, the 32nd Legislature will convene in regular session to judge the credentials of Senator-elect, Janelle K. Sarauw if confirmed, and to administer the Oath of Office upon her and to seat her as a member of the 32nd Legislature of the Virgin Islands. Senator-elect Janelle K. Sarauw shall present her credentials to the secretary of the Legislature for consideration by the body,” reads the Legislative agenda, posted on the Senate’s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Barring any surprises, administering the oath of office to Ms. Sarauw will end the overdrawn saga that has pitted Democrats against each other, with St. Thomas-St. John Democratic Party Chair Edgar Baker Phillips levying wild accusations against fellow Democrats in an effort to discredit their reason for voting against Mr. Rodriquez during the June 28 Senate session. Democrats who voted to reject Mr. Rodriquez said because he lied to a bankruptcy court in Tennessee in an attempt to keep his family from becoming homeless, he should not be seated.<\/p>\n

But the Territorial Democratic Party has not given up. Former Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen, currently the Democratic Party\u2019s state chair, confirmed to The Consortium Thursday that a complaint filed by the party in the District Court of the Virgin Islands seeking declaratory judgement and injunctive relief to bar the Board of Elections from certifying the April 8 special election, was denied by the court because the Democratic Party had no attorney on file.<\/p>\n

Ms. Christensen, aware of the Superior Court\u2019s latest ruling, added that the party had not given up, but would take sometime to regroup before announcing next moves. \u201cOur position has not changed; we believe that due process was not done, the directives in the Organic Act were not followed, so we\u2019re exploring where we go from here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The state chair insists that Mr. Rodriquez should have been seated as a senator, as he was voted by the people. \u201cThere\u2019s a presumption based on his being elected that he is elected and they should act that way, not that he is an outsider trying to get in,\u201d Ms. Christensen said. She said the party\u2019s determination was to ensure due process to Mr. Rodriquez, adding that the 32nd Legislature\u2019s decision to reject Mr. Rodriquez sets a bad precedent for the future. \u201cThis has nothing to do with Janelle Sarauw,\u201d Ms. Christensen noted, telling The Consortium that Ms. Sarauw would probably do a fine job as a lawmaker. But Ms. Christensen and by extension the leadership of the Democratic Party outside of the Senate, believe that Mr. Rodriquez was treated not only unfairly, but unlawfully.<\/p>\n

She called into question the integrity of the April 8 special election, suggesting that it may be null because lawmakers failed to follow the Organic Act. \u201cWe have never taken the position that a vacancy existed,\u201d she said, a point that may wind up deciding the validity of the special election. She pointed to Senate President Myron Jackson\u2019s letter to the Board of Elections in which he states that a vacancy exists in the Senate, a letter that could become pivotal if a case based on whether Mr. Rodriquez should have been treated as if he were a senator, sworn in subsequently dealt with if lawmakers so choosed, we\u2019re to take root.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t a vacancy before, and that calls into question the validity of the April 8 special election,\u201d Ms. Christensen said. She said if the courts agree with the party in its belief that Mr. Rodriquez was not given due process, it would represent a major victory in the party\u2019s attempts to assure the senator-elect a fair process.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should have been sworn in; his legal counsel should have the opportunity to question adverse witnesses,\u201d Ms. Christensen said, referring to the recent Senate session that determined Mr. Rodriquez\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST. THOMAS — The 32nd Legislature will meet on July 14 to swear in the April 8 special election winner, Janelle Sarauw, following the Superior Court’s decision granting Ms. Sarauw writ mandamus by ordering the St. Thomas-St. John District Board of Elections to perform its “ministerial” duty of certifying the election. “Pursuant to the Revised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[228,191,8,2474,147],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nJanelle Sarauw To Take Oath Of Office On July 14 - V.I. Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=54256\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ernice Gilbert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=54256\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=54256\",\"name\":\"Janelle Sarauw To Take Oath Of Office On July 14 - V.I. Consortium\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-07T22:40:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-13T21:54:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51\"},\"description\":\"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=54256#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=54256\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=54256#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Janelle Sarauw To Take Oath Of Office On July 14\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/\",\"name\":\"V.I. Consortium\",\"description\":\"Uniting the Caribbean\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51\",\"name\":\"Ernice Gilbert\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ernice Gilbert\"},\"description\":\"I wear many hats, I suppose, but the one which fits me best would be journalism, second to that would be radio personality, thirdly singer\/songwriter and down the line. I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Janelle Sarauw To Take Oath Of Office On July 14 - V.I. Consortium","description":"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=54256","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ernice Gilbert","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=54256","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=54256","name":"Janelle Sarauw To Take Oath Of Office On July 14 - V.I. Consortium","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-07-07T22:40:36+00:00","dateModified":"2017-07-13T21:54:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51"},"description":"Find Virgin Islands new, opinion, politics, lifestyle, business and more","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=54256#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=54256"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=54256#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Janelle Sarauw To Take Oath Of Office On July 14"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/","name":"V.I. Consortium","description":"Uniting the Caribbean","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51","name":"Ernice Gilbert","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ernice Gilbert"},"description":"I wear many hats, I suppose, but the one which fits me best would be journalism, second to that would be radio personality, thirdly singer\/songwriter and down the line. I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.","sameAs":["http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/"],"url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54256"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}