MARCO CITY

PLP: Pleasant Bridgewater

FNM: Zhivargo Laing

Marco City was created in 1982 and won by the FNM’s C.A. Smith. The late Cecil Wallace-Whitfield took over the seat in 1987 when he and Mr. Smith switched seats and he won by over 600 votes. Unfortunately, he soon was discovered to have cancer and despite a valiant fight, he finally succumbed to the disease in 1991. The PLP ran Albert Gray in the bye-election against the FNM’s David Thompson and pulled out all the stops, hoping to crush the momentum that the FNM was starting to build with the addition of Hubert Ingraham as the new leader replacing Sir Cecil, but they fell short. They tried to spin it into a victory since they had cut the FNM’s margin from 600 down to fewer than 200, but it was not perceived that way and Mr. Thompson went on to win large margins in ’92 and ’92.

But by ’02, he was damaged goods and under a cloud of alleged corruption. Mr. Ingraham wanted him replaced as a candidate but he refused to give up the seat and the candidates committee agreed to re-nominate him. He lost by over 250 votes in what should have been one of the safest FNM seats in the country to Mrs. Bridgewater who had been working very hard.

Mrs. Bridgewater has continued to work the seat but as election time looms, she faces the twin obstacles of the seats natural FNM slant combined with the bad economy of Freeport. Either would be hard to overcome, but with both in place, she’s starting this race from behind.

She faces Mr. Laing, the former FNM MP for Ft. Charlote. He's known as a tough campaigner with energy to match hers. Expect a lot of work to be done in this seat by both sides.

Rating: LEAN FNM