CHARLOTTE AMALIE — All six incumbent St. Thomas senators who ran in Tuesday’s election will return to their seats, along with newcomer Avery Lewis, who took a leave of absence as Administrator for the St. Thomas, St. John, and Water Island district to campaign for the 36th Legislature.
At-Large Sen. Angel Bolques Jr., a Democrat, will also return for another term as St. John’s representative in the Legislature, after beating out challenger Lorelei Marsh Monsanto, an independent candidate. Bolques received 3,249 votes to Monsanto’s 2,362.
The only incumbent from the district not returning is Sen. Donna Frett-Gregory, who announced in May that she would not run for re-election.
There were 7,166 ballots cast in the district, representing 22.99% of eligible voters, according to unofficial results released by the Election System on Tuesday night.
In addition to voting for candidates to the Virgin Islands Legislature, voters also cast ballots for candidates to the Board of Education, Board of Elections and the Sixth Constitutional Convention.
Of the candidates for the Legislature, the top St. Thomas vote-getter was Democrat Sen. Milton Potter, who received 3,976 votes to earn a third term in office, followed closely by Independent Alma Francis Heyliger, who received 3,872 votes.
“It just really warms my heart that the people of the Virgin Islands appreciated the work that I’ve done on their behalf. Everything I do is for the people of the Virgin Islands,” Potter said in a phone call with The Daily News. “We may not get it right 100% of the time, but 100% of the time, the decision I make is with them in mind, trying to focus on improving the quality of life for the people.”
Potter said he is “deeply humbled and appreciative for their support,” and there is a lot of work to be done, starting with the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority.
He feels the pain of all WAPA customers, and “my power goes too,” Potter said.
“I think we need to kind of take a different approach to WAPA. For the last 40 years, we’ve had WAPA as a major issue. But I really believe that it is too much for the CEO to handle. I think we have to break it up, to me,” Potter said. “That’s something we can discuss, where the administrative, financial challenges, day-to-day operations of WAPA is one thing, try to get that fixed, and maybe Karl Knight can fix that. But we also need to focus on the future of WAPA, how do we spend the $2-plus billion that we have access to, to transform WAPA?”
Potter said WAPA affects all Virgin Islanders in some way, and has wide-ranging impacts on everything from the economy to quality of life for residents.
A new approach is needed to, “see some meaningful gains, and people’s trust is waning,” Potter said.
Overall, “I’m just eager to roll up my sleeves and work with my colleagues in the 36th. We have a lot of work to do, a lot of serious work, and we’re at a point I think in our history where how we function, how we collaborate, the decisions that we make today with respect to the $15, $16, $17 billion that we have access to. How we deal with that will determine how our children look at us, what did we do when this opportunity came before us,” Potter said.
He added that he’s hoping the executive and legislative branches can collaborate “to make sure that we don’t miss the boat when it comes to transforming the territory and using this unprecedented billions of dollars we have avialable to us.”
Another top vote-getter of the night was Sen. Dwayne DeGraff, an Independent, who secured a fifth term in office after receiving 3,606 votes.
“I’m very much indebted to the people,” DeGraff said.
While campaigning on Election Day, “it was a pleasure to see the people exercising their rights, first of all, to take a chance and vote for whoever they chose to support,” DeGraff said. “To the people who are seeing it fit to give me another chance, I am deeply humbled and highly grateful for that.”
He gave heartfelt thanks to his “small but powerful” staff and committee for their dedication, and said he’s already looking forward to tackling the challenges facing the territory.
“I have a bill that I’m looking at trying to do an infrastructure impact stabilization fund, where I add a fee to the disaster contracts. Which will put aside money to go toward the infrastructure as a whole,” so there are resources available for long-term maintenance after new schools, roads, and hospitals are constructed using federal disaster funding, DeGraff said.
One of DeGraff’s supporters, Jose Lettsome, was among those who campaigned outside Kean High School on Tuesday.
Lettsome said that over the four terms he’s worked with him, DeGraff has never compromised his integrify, and “you can trust him, he’s transparent.”
Lettsome highlighted DeGraff’s legislation to allow veterans to travel for medical treatment off-island twice a year — “I love that” — and a bill codifying a higher 27-passenger limit for safaris, which he said helps the taxi industry to accommodate passengers coming off increasingly large cruise ships, and eliminates the need to remove a row of seats from larger vehicles.
In addition, “he’s an advocate for our seniors,” and hired over 70 summer students during his time in office, giving young people a resume booster, Lettsome said.
The seven winners of the St. Thomas senate race are Potter, Francis Heyliger, DeGraff, Sen. Marvin Blyden, Lewis, Sen. Carla Joseph, and Sen. Ray Fonseca.
Roger Persad was among those campaigning at Kean High School on Tuesday for Ronald Pickard, who challenged incumbent Virgin Islands Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett, a Democrat. Independent Ida Smith was also running for the seat Tuesday.
Persad said Pickard switched his political affiliation to Republican because of his concerns about corruption in the local Democrat party.
Persad also said Plaskett is critical of conservatives, and when it comes to Donald Trump, “she wants to put him in jail.”
If Trump wins the election and the country is once again run by a Republican, “how would that work for us?” Persad said. “We need someone that’s bipartisan.”
Persad said he’s concerned that he’s not seeing results of the billions in federal aid being directed to the territory, and encouraged electors to “vote for the Virgin Islands, don’t vote for party.”
Plaskett’s poll captain, Patrick Massicot, said he and other supporters are pleased with the work she has been doing while in office.
The popular incumbent “is working very hard for the Virgin Islands in Congress,” Massicot said, and helped to bring billions in federal aid to the territory following the 2017 hurricanes and the Covid-19 pandemic.
There were no issues at St. Thomas polling sites Tuesday, and “we had a great day, great support,” Massicot said.
Plaskett ultimately won in a landslide Tuesday, receiving 4,569 votes to Smith’s 1,207, and Pickard received 581 votes.
In terms of Tuesday’s voter turnout, “today is extremely busy,” said Tisean Hendricks, who served as Judge for the Charlotte Amalie High School voting center. “We had an excellent turnout.”
Hendricks said voters were coming in steadily from the time polls opened at 7 a.m., and there were no major issues to report.
“We have to applaud our voters, they’ve been extremely patient,” Hendricks said, and staff were working to assist elderly and disabled voters and make the process as smooth as possible for all.
Judges pointed out that the Elections System has been working to make voting as easy as possible, and registered voters could cast a ballot at any of the four voting centers, regardless of home address. St. John voters could also vote on St. Thomas, at whichever polling site was most convenient.
At Kean High School, Elections Judge Alicia Gumbs said there were no issues to report with voting machines, and voters were being cooperative and cordial with staff.
“They’re really excited about the process and how easy it is,” and everything was going “very smoothly,” Gumbs said.
More than a dozen voters were lined up outside the polling center in Tutu Park Mall at 4 p.m. Tuesday, and staff did their best to keep traffic flowing through the bustling site.
The voting center at the University of the Virgin Islands had a “constant flow from this morning,” Elections Judge Donna Phillip said.
“People are really coming out to vote, a cross-section of people,” Phillip said. “They’re really taking this election seriously.
By SUZANNE CARLSON/Virgin Islands Daily News
