Shirley to announce re-election campaign

By Natasha Kaye Johnson
Diné Bureau

GALLUP — This Sunday, President Joe Shirley Jr. will officially announce his candidacy for the 2006 campaign election at the Chinle Community Center.

"This is a momentous and exciting time for the Navajo people, for me, and for my family," said Shirley. "We've seen many huge accomplishments throughout the last three years and have set the course for many more to fall into place this year, next year, and in the future. I am hopeful the Navajo people will allow me to continue on this successful path with them and for them."

Shirley recently established the Re-elect Joe Shirley, Jr. 2006 Campaign Committee to organize his campaign, and is preparing for a large campaign that will be headquartered in Window Rock.

"He's been pondering it for a couple of weeks," said Patrick Sandoval, Chief of Staff for the Navajo Nation.

According to Sandoval, Shirley has been contemplating running for re-election much longer than this, after much consultation with his wife Vikki, family, and through prayer. And if re-elected, Sandoval said that Shirley's plan is to continue what was started.

While Shirley has yet to prioritize his goals if re-elected, he does plan on carrying over current projects and going full speed ahead with them. Establishing casinos on the Navajo Nation is one of several goals that Shirley planned for his campaign, with the first casino to be built by August of this year.

"That will happen just during primary time," said Sandoval. "It's a big revenue generator, not just for the communities, but for the Navajo Nation."

Campaign goals
Shirley's plan includes building a total of six casinos across the Navajo Reservation, with an estimated budged of $25 million per site. The market study for the project is near completion with some proposed casino locations larger than others.

Shirley wants to bring more money into the scholarship office for education by creating a Navajo Nation Lottery Scholarship Program, similar to the New Mexico Lottery Scholarship Program.

Shirley also has a high-tech initiative, which will help to bring in technology on the reservation. His campaign plan includes building the nation through technology, which will benefit all areas of need on the reservation such as public safety and health care. Part of this plan will be to finalize the installation of 96 cell towers across the reservation that will allow this technology to exist.

Throughout his term, Shirley has said that there is no economic development because there is no infrastructure. With this, his focus has been to lay the groundwork to establish infrastructure, which will ultimately set the foundation for economic development.

"We're smart enough to know that we can't change that (economic development trends) but we can put a dent in it," said Sandoval. "It's not easy, but its doable."

Shirley's continued campaign will also focus on empowering the Navajo people, through minimizing micromanagment of tribal government programs and empowering local governments. "There's an imbalance in the government right now," said Sandoval. "There are three branches that are supposed to be separate."

Daily micromanagement causes delay in progress in the Navajo Tribal government, which Shirley plans on addressing and ultimately realigning, he said.

"There's a tremendous amount of bureaucracy," said Sandoval.

This realignment will then allow the tribe to get things done much faster. Empowering local chapter governments is another proposed plan for Shirley's campaign. The bond financing project, a $426 million dollar program according to Sandoval, which was launched in 2003, is another priority for Shirley.

The project is expected to be completed over a 60 month period and would positively impact capital improvement, help with the creation of a trauma system, create more funds for the scholarship program, build on economic development, and provide quality elderly care. It will also help to create employment on the reservation with 10,000 construction jobs projected and nearly 5,000 permanent jobs.

While these are goals that Shirley will be carrying over into the new term, he plans to address issues on a social level as well.

"We're already seeing the fruits of our plans to enhance education for all Navajo children, protect our people and groundwater from uranium exposure, ensure our communities' safety with many more Navajo police officers, raise our people's awareness of the dangers of drunk driving and domestic violence, bring economic development to our people and revenue to our Nation's coffers through casino development and, perhaps most important, assert our Nation's sovereignty to enact laws, live by them and have other entities respect them," Shirley stated in a press release.

"Everything is a priority for the president," said Sandoval. "There's not going to be anything that he will push aside and forget about."

Ultimately, Shirley's goal is to give power back to the people, said Sandoval.

Running mate
The campaign committee is also expected to kick off soon and has no plans to campaign any differently from the previous campaign.

"The President himself is the most effect component of the campaign," said Sandoval, who served as the campaign manager for Shirley during the last election. "He's bringing four years of knowledge back to the campaign."

The president will be announcing this year's campaign manager by Friday.

While Shirley will be announcing his re-election campaign officially this Sunday, the status of his running mate is still up in the air.

Vice President Frank Dayish, Jr. stated that he was not aware of Shirley's candidacy decision until he was informed by The Independent.

"We weren't aware of what they were planning to do," said Dayish.

Sandoval said that Dayish is still involved in the day-to-day activities.

Sandoval also added that candidates do not usually announce their running mate until the primary election.

With primary elections only five months away, most presidential candidates are beginning to start their campaigns. As an incumbent, Shirley has encouraged his staff to run the campaign like they are behind.

"We are not in a winning position until general election votes are counted," said Sandoval.