Opinion: Pushing for Systemic Change in the Territory, Starting With the Legislature

Editor’s Note: In this submission, attorney Mark Hodge outlines the first step in his plan for systemic change in the U.S. Virgin Islands – a different way to manage legislative elections.

Why is this the first step? At the moment, our Legislature does not function like a proper legislature comprised of colleagues, and to complete any of the other steps to achieve critical systemic change, we will first need an efficient Legislature so that the best public policy can be enacted without the petty one upmanship campaigning that is inherent in our Legislature’s very structure.

What is the problem with our Legislature? The problem with our Legislature is how it is elected. We have party primaries for the 7 St. Thomas/St. John seats and 7 St. Croix seats, where all the incumbents of that party are running directly against one another for one of those 7 party nominations. Then, we proceed with what appears to be unheard of elsewhere in the country: a jungle general election for multiple seats, in which the 7 St. Thomas/St. John and 7 St. Croix seats are awarded to the top 7 finishers on that island, regardless of party. So, assuming they made it through the primary, the 7 incumbents from St. Thomas/St. John and the 7 incumbents from St. Croix directly campaign against one another in the general election for one of the top 7 spots to retain their seat in the Legislature. In other words, regardless of shared political party and regardless of shared policy priorities, our 7 Senators from St. Thomas/St. John and 7 Senators from St. Croix are never actually colleagues with the Senators from their own district. They are perpetual political opponents, necessarily spending time worried about how failing to distinguish themselves from the other Senators from their district may be damaging to their ranking amongst incumbents in the eyes of voters or potentially even contemplating how best to shift a competitor’s ranking lower. It turns what should be simple legislative work into an extension of their respective campaigns for re-election.