Despite the Virgin Islands’ relative invisibility on the national political scene, national and local Republican Party members said Thursday that the economically troubled territory will remain on President-elect George W. Bush’s radar screen.
Speaking to local party members on St. Croix, the Bush campaign’s political liaison for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Steven Kupka, said the gelling Bush administration will have a plan and policy in place for the territory within four years, "and hopefully before that."
Kupka is in the islands to help organize an inaugural committee that will choose who from the territory goes to Washington, D.C., for the Jan. 20 gala.
He is also putting together a policy committee that will forward issues of concern to the Bush administration and an appointment committee that will identify local Republicans for possible posts in either the administration or federal government.
As far as the Virgin Islands being on the incoming president’s list of priorities, Kupka said it will be up to V.I. Republican Party members to make issues and concerns known.
"Locals will be very important in that process," he said, noting that President-elect Bush has had "a lot on his mind the last 36 days."
Asked about the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Interior Department and the V.I. government, which sets out economic recovery standards, Kupka said Bush has not made any decisions. Kupka said the policy committee will take up such issues.
"We don’t have a special plan in place," he said.
While Kupka has been the national Republican Party’s liaison in the U.S. Caribbean territories for the last two years and has become familiar with local issues, he said he wasn’t sure if he would be part of Bush’s administration.
A key player, Kupka said, will be St. Croix resident Holland Redfield II, a former Virgin Islands senator who is now a top official at Innovative Communication Corp. Redfield was the Bush campaign committee chairman in the territory and earlier this year visited with Bush in Texas to discuss local issues.
"For whatever reason, Sen. Redfield and Gov. Bush hit it off," Kupka said. "They have a personal friendship. (Redfield) has got the potential for a post in the administration if he wants."
Kupka, meanwhile, said it was still premature to discuss who Bush might appoint to head the Interior Department, which has oversight of the territory. Bruce Babbitt, outgoing Interior secretary, was active in V.I. affairs, particularly with the Coral Reef Initiative. He also instigated the memorandum of understanding aimed at setting economic recovery goals for the territory.
Early leaders for the Interior post in the Bush administration are Montana's governor Marc Racicot and former Washington state Sen. Slade Gordon.
Critics say Racicot was too responsive to the mining and logging industries in Montana and noted his opposition to tightening the Endangered Species Act, the clean air and water acts and mandatory federal compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act.
Gordon, who lost his Senate re-election bid by a squeaker in November, has taken conservative stands on timber harvesting and Indian rights issues. Gordon chaired the Senate’s Appropriations Interior Subcommittee.
Despite both Racicot and Gordon’s conservative positions on the environment, Kupka said he doesn’t "see a Jim Watt type coming in." Watt was the highly controversial Interior secretary under President Ronald Reagan.