For all their praise of each other and assurances that bygones will be bygones, senators in the upcoming 24th Legislature’s majority didn’t hold back their disdain Wednesday for the V.I. Democratic Party or their Democrat colleagues. Except, of course, for the lone "donkey" in their midst — Sen. Norman Jn. Baptiste.
Just about every one of the eight majority senators took a shot at the Democrats during a press conference on St. Croix introducing the organization of the next Senate — even Baptiste.
"I have no qualms for the position I’ve taken," he said, referring to his running as a Democrat but then breaking ranks after the election. It is a move that has rankled some of the old guard in the party.
Baptiste was unrepentant Wednesday, saying that some of his Democratic colleagues in the 23rd Legislature were know-it-alls "who thought they had a monopoly on the answers." His maneuvering, he said, was to "declare liberty from those persons who have held a stranglehold on the territory in the name of a political party."
"It’s not about affiliation, my loyalty or my lack of loyalty to an organization," he said. "It’s about the future of these Virgin Islands."
Baptiste’s majority colleagues, meanwhile, praised his courage to go against the machine and vowed to "watch his back."
Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, an independent, cited Attorney General Iver Stridiron’s attack on Baptiste just days before the election for comments Baptiste made in Territorial Court supporting striking teachers.
"That could not have taken place if it was not with the consent of the governor," Hansen said. "As far as I’m concerned, the Democratic Party and the governor meant to destroy him."
Independent Senator-Elect Norma Pickard-Samuels let lose a particularly virulent attack on the Democratic leadership, saying the party was harboring "rapists, thieves and white-collar criminals."
"We’re going to take back the territory from those vultures," she said, without naming names.
