Lieutenant Francisco Ada Name Carlos Camacho Preceded by Position established Political party Democratic Party | Spouse(s) Lourdes Camacho Succeeded by Pedro Tenorio Religion Roman Catholicism | |
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Full Name Carlos Sablan Camacho Born February 27, 1937 (age 87)
Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. ( 1937-02-27 ) Alma mater University of Hawaii, Manoa
Fiji School of Medicine Education University of Hawaii at Manoa, Fiji School of Medicine | ||
Carlos Sablan Camacho (born February 27, 1937) was the first elected Governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth of the United States.
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Biography
Camacho was born on Saipan. He attended the Fiji School of Medicine and the University of Hawaii. He practiced medicine until 1967, when he was elected to the Congress of Micronesia. He served as the Pacific islands' chief medical officer of public health from 1969 to 1977. He was also president of the Saipan Democratic Party from 1975 to 1977. In 1976, he was appointed to the Northern Marianas Constitutional Convention.
Governorship
Camacho, a Democrat, was elected the first governor of that new territory in 1977. He served a single term from 1978 to 1982, when he was succeeded by a Republican, Pedro Tenorio.
Taisacan v. Camacho
In 1980, the CNMI legislature passed a budget that would have appropriated over $1.5 million in federal money for capital improvements on the island of Rota. Camacho vetoed this portion of the budget, calling it excessive and inequitable. Leon Taisacan, a Rota resident, then sued Camacho, claiming that his veto violated the terms of the Covenant between the United States and the CNMI. A district court granted summary judgement in favor of Camacho, and then the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that Taisacan did not have standing to sue, as he was not specifically injured by the veto.