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Our verdict

LiberalMind endorses Michael Evangelista — as unproven in the top job, and on watch

Election Day is November 3. Edward Manibusan, the Commonwealth's attorney general since 2015, declined a fourth term, and three lawyers — all running in this nonpartisan office — seek to succeed him. One is the office's own chief solicitor, whom the Commonwealth's courts disqualified from its most important prosecution. One is the former governor's brother and criminal defense lawyer, while that governor runs to take the government back. One is a former assistant attorney general who lost this race twelve years ago and has spent the years since in private practice and public boards. LiberalMind endorses Michael Evangelista — as unproven in the top job, and on watch. Read the research, and see why.

How the Commonwealth got here

The CNMI attorney general has been an elected, nonpartisan office only since 2014. In that first election, Manibusan defeated Michael Evangelista 64.8% to 35.2% (Commonwealth Election Commission results, via the compiled 2014 general election summary). Manibusan won twice more, then "abruptly announced that he would not run for a fourth term" (compiled 2026 CNMI AG election summary; NMI News Service, Aug. 3, 2026). The certified candidate field, per the Commonwealth Election Commission list reported by Marianas Press and corroborated by RNZ's Aug. 11, 2026 field summary: Michael Evangelista, Jonathan "Robby" Glass Jr., and Joaquin "Jack" Torres — all nonpartisan.

The race is defined by one case. The Commonwealth prosecuted former Governor Ralph DLG Torres after his 2022 impeachment and indictment; the prosecution consumed itself in conflicts litigation, and in March 2026 the criminal cases were dismissed with prejudice under a settlement in which Torres paid a $23,745 airfare-difference amount — with immunity provisions so broad that in May 2026 the OAG itself moved to invalidate parts of the deal, arguing the special prosecutor who signed it acted beyond his authority (Marianas Press, May–June 2026). All three candidates at the Sept. 12, 2026 Bar Association forum addressed independence, charging standards, and conflicts (CNMI Politics' forum record). No polling and no campaign-finance figures for this race were located in this research.

Jonathan Glass — the insider the courts removed from the big case

Background and service: Glass is the OAG's Chief Solicitor and says he has worked at the office about ten years; at the Bar forum he defended the office's contract-review performance during periods when he served as acting AG and proposed a full-time consumer-protection attorney (CNMI Politics forum record). He is the continuity candidate — he is running to lead the institution he already helps run.

His record, as adjudicated: In 2024 the Superior Court disqualified Glass individually — along with AG Manibusan and special prosecutor James Kingman — from the Torres prosecution. In 2025 the CNMI Supreme Court (Commonwealth v. Torres, 2025 MP 5 and 2025 MP 6) affirmed the individual disqualifications while reversing the office-wide one, and stated that Glass and Kingman could not return to prosecute the charges at issue (CNMI Politics' primary-record summary of the opinions; the sprint's CNMI governor research file reaches the same reading).

Pros: A decade inside the office, its senior solicitor, with a stated program (consumer protection staffing, contract review) drawn from actually doing the work. Institutional knowledge is not nothing in a small commonwealth's largest law office.

Cons: The Commonwealth's highest court has already ruled, in the term just ending, that this lawyer could not ethically prosecute the Commonwealth's most consequential case. That is not an accusation — it is an adjudicated fact about his professional conduct in this office, and it is the center of his file.

The flaw, plainly: Proven, in service, by court order: an individual disqualification, affirmed on appeal. A voter may still choose him — but no voter should be told the blemish is rhetoric. It is the documented record.

Joaquin "Jack" Torres — the brother

Background and service: Torres has more than two decades of legal practice (Isla Public Media KPRG, Aug. 3, 2026) and is a veteran criminal defense attorney. He represented his brother, former Governor Ralph DLG Torres, in the criminal matters arising from the governorship (CNMI Politics forum record), and his defense team is, as of this writing, litigating against the OAG's motion to void parts of the settlement that ended those cases — arguing the deal was negotiated by a conflict-free prosecutor exercising independent judgment and approved by the court (Marianas Press). The Republican Party's comeback campaign is his brother's: at the GOP meet-and-greet, Ralph Torres "asked supporters to back his brother" for attorney general (Marianas Press).

Pros: Twenty-plus years of practice, deep criminal-defense experience, and a demonstrated willingness to stand between the government and an accused man — including when the government was determined. Defense work is honorable work, and we print that without irony.

Cons: The structural fact cannot be argued away: if Ralph Torres is elected governor and Jack Torres is elected attorney general, the Commonwealth's chief law-enforcement officer will be the governor's brother and former criminal defense counsel, in a government whose AG's office is currently in court against that governor over the scope of his immunity. Every charging decision, contract review, and investigation touching the administration would carry that weight, and recusals would not be an episode — they would be the architecture of the office.

The flaw, plainly: Not misconduct — a documented, structural conflict that goes to the office's core function, proven as to its elements (the representation, the live litigation, the brother's candidacy) in the sources above. Opponents argue it more hotly than that (a Tina Sablan op-ed in NMI News Service calls the brothers' joint run a bid to make accountability impossible); we print the facts, not the op-ed's temperature.

Michael Evangelista — the 2014 runner-up, back without a conflict file

Background and service: From his campaign's published biography (candidate's own site, recorded as such): J.D., University of Idaho College of Law; former Assistant Attorney General; more than 16 years in private practice across criminal defense, civil litigation, corporate and administrative law; admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit, and the CNMI and Guam courts; current chairman of the CNMI Zoning Board; former chairman and current member of the Northern Marianas College Board of Regents. At the Bar forum he described nearly 30 years of public and private legal experience and emphasized integrity, accessibility, transparency, and community safety, with recusal "when an actual conflict or appearance of impropriety requires it" (CNMI Politics forum record). His stated program: enforce the Open Government Act, strong domestic-violence and victim enforcement, and consumer protection against scams and price-gouging (campaign site).

The 2014 fact, printed straight: He ran for this office in the first elected AG race and lost to Manibusan by nearly thirty points (CEC results, above). The voters who rejected him then were choosing the man who then served three terms; the field in front of them now is a different one.

Pros: The only candidate of the three with no adjudicated disqualification and no family conflict in his file — and not a novice: a former line prosecutor in this office, a dozen years of broad private practice, and public-board service since.

Cons: He has never run a law office of this size or held the top job; his program is principles-forward and specifics-light; and his one prior measurement before these voters was a landslide loss, albeit in 2014 against a former presiding judge.

The flaw, plainly: None proven in service was located in the sources searched. Unproven in the top job is a watch posture, not a demerit — and it is the posture this endorsement carries.

A standing check found no pedophile-association material meeting the proven standard for any candidate in this race — absence noted, nothing implied.

OUR CALL

LiberalMind endorses Michael Evangelista — as unproven in the top job, and on watch.

In a nonpartisan race, the doctrine prices records. Glass's record contains the Commonwealth Supreme Court's own ruling removing him from the Commonwealth's biggest prosecution — proven, adjudicated, and directly on the office's core duty. Torres's record contains a structural conflict that would define his term from its first day, with live litigation between his future office and his brother-client as the proof. Evangelista's record contains a twelve-year-old landslide loss and a thin program — limitations, not findings. Between proven conflicts and unproven capacity, this publication takes the unproven man with the clean file and the watch stated. His first test is the one he named himself: recusal and transparency rules with measurable teeth, in an office that has just spent four years drowning in conflict questions.

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Sources

Election result — November 5, 2026

Runoff required. No candidate won a majority in the November 3 vote. The Commonwealth Election Commission has scheduled the runoff for November 20, 2026, following certification of the first-round vote. The winner will be recorded when the runoff is called or certified. Appended November 5, 2026; the original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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