Del. Madeleine Bordallo (D)

Madeleine Bordallo, a Democrat, was elected delegate from Guam in 2002. She grew up in Minnesota and, after age 14, on Guam. She studied vocal music at St. Katherine’s College in St. Paul and worked for a few Guam radio stations. Madeleine Bordallo became Guam’s Democratic National Committeewoman in 1964 and has held that position ever since (she is the most senior member of the Democratic National Committee).Her husband, Ricardo Bordallo, was elected governor in 1974, defeated for re-election in 1978, then elected governor again in 1982. Madeleine Bordallo ran for the Guam Legislature and was first elected in 1980. On Feb. 1, 1990, Ricardo Bordallo, facing a prison term for bribery, chained himself to the statue of Chief Quipuha and shot himself in the head, dying later that day. Madeleine Bordallo was a candidate for governor that year, and lost 57%-43% to incumbent Republican Joseph Ada. In 1994, she was elected lieutenant governor and was re-elected in 1998.

In 2002, when Del. Robert Underwood decided to run for governor, Bordallo ran for delegate. In the primary she faced Judith Won Pat, daughter of Guam’s first delegate, Antonio Borja Won Pat. In this contest between longtime friends, Bordallo won 59%-41%. In the general election, she once again faced Ada. This time, Bordallo won by 65%-35%.

Bordallo got a seat on the Armed Services Committee and proceeded to lobby her colleagues for more military deployments in Guam. The 2004 defense reauthorization included $90 million in military construction for Guam. It also included $250,000 for Bordallo’s invasive species pilot project; Guam has been plagued by the voracious and repulsive brown tree snake, which has wiped out most of the island’s native birds. In 2003, she got a bill signed into law giving Guam and other insular areas the same access to guaranteed loans as the 50 states. She sought $157 million of debt relief for Guam but her request was denied by the Bush administration. Working closely with her mentor, Hawaii Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye, she successfully got $30 million annual compact aid for 20 years, to be divided among Guam, Hawaii, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa. In 2005, she secured passage of a bill designating Guam as a Historically Underutilized Business Zone, which gave small businesses preferred treatment in federal contracting.

Bordallo, like other Guam delegates before her, has sought reparations for Guamanians for human rights abuses suffered during Japan’s occupation during World War II, even though the 1951 treaty between the U.S. and Japan absolved Japan of any claims. In May 2007, the House approved her bill for reparations for Guamanians who suffered during the occupation. It died in the Senate after Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., objected to it. In 2009, Bordallo became chairman of the Natural Resources Committee’s Insular Affairs Subcommittee and continued to lobby members of both parties for the bill. Also that year, she held oversight hearings on implementation of the 2008 law imposing federal immigration law on the Northern Mariana Islands. She called for a waiver of the cap on temporary work visas for foreign workers and a waiver of visa requirements for Chinese tourists to both Guam and the Northern Marianas.

Bordallo has not had major party opposition since her first election in 2002.