What's in a name? 'Jeffrey' or 'Jeff: a non-issue, says Guam's gubernatorial hopeful

Jeff Pleadwell

 By Jayvee Vallejera

Gubernatorial candidate Jeff Pleadwell said “it’s not right” for the Guam Election Commission to take issue with his legal name in his nominating petitions while accepting the use of another candidate’s nickname.

Pleadwell, who is running with Charlie Hermosa as an Independent tandem, also pointed out that the GEC has not publicly taken issue with the nominating petitions of Republican lieutenant governor candidate E.J. Calvo, who is paired with gubernatorial candidate Vice Speaker Tony Ada in the primary election. Calvo’s legal name is Edward.

“I really don't think it's right because Jeffrey or Jeff is still me. My legal name is Jeffrey Edwin Pleadwell, but I go by Jeff Pleadwell,” he said in a phone interview. “And what about E.J. Calvo? Is that a legal name?”

Pleadwell pointed out that the GEC has not raised any issue with other candidates' names.

At issue for the Pleadwell-Hermosa team is that some of their nominating petitions used the name "Jeff" instead of Pleadwell's legal first name, Jeffrey.

GEC Executive Director Maria Pangelinan was quoted in Guam Daily Post's earlier reports that the commission couldn not accept the nominating signatures.

Pangelinan has not responded to the Pacific Island Times' request for comment.

The Pleadwell-Hermosa team is also barred from submitting new signatures because it is already past the May 1 deadline.

Pleadwell pointed out that GEC has already accepted their nominations and there is no issue with the difference between Jeff and Jeffrey because he is known by both names.

The dispute is only with Pleadwell’s name. There are no issues with Hermosa's name.

Pleadwell said he and Hermosa have already talked about the matter, and they both sat down with Pangelinan yesterday and got more details after being notified about it.

GEC is currently reviewing the Pleadwell-Hermosa nominating petitions to see if there are enough signatures containing Pleadwell’s legal name. 

A gubernatorial candidate team needs 500 signatures to be considered official candidates. 

Pangelinan is quoted earlier as saying the Pleadwell-Hermosa team may still have enough signatures that contain Pleadwell’s legal name.

“We turned in 847 signatures,” Pleadwell added.

Another element that will also be a factor in the final numbers is the number of inactive voters whose names were purged from the registry after failing to vote in the last two elections on Guam. It was earlier reported that 11,930 inactive voters were purged last year.

“Many people did not realize that, a while back, the election commission purged a lot of names. If they didn't vote in the last two elections, the GEC deleted their names, so a lot of people could think they were registered, but they weren't really registered,” Pleadwell said.

He is confident the Independent team will surmount the hiccup in their gubernatorial run.

“I just think that being an independent is a harder climb, but we're up for the challenge,” Pleadwell said. 

The Pleadwell-Hermosa team is the only independent ticket running in the August primary election.

Ada and Calvo are competing for the Republican nomination with Speaker Frank Blas Jr. and Guam Community College president Mary Okada.

On the Democratic side, the team of Sen. Joe San Agustin and former senator Dwayne San Nicolas is competing for the party’s nomination in the primary with the teams of Sens. Therese Terlaje and Sabina Perez and Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio and Sen. Tina Muña Barnes.

Correction: A gubernatorial candidate team needs 500 signatures —not 400 —to be considered official candidates. 

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