Host of Honestly Speaking, Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline has vowed to help the current District 4 Representative, Hon Luce D. Hodge-Smith, in her campaign during the next general election, if any former District 4 Representative runs against her. Photo: Facebook

Hon Luce D. Hodge-Smith is the current Representative for the Fourth District. Photo: Government of the Virgin Islands

It is alleged that former Legislator and District 4 Representative, Mark H. Vanterpool, is considering running in the district as an independent during the next general election. Photo: Government of the Virgin Islands

During his April 21, 2026, show titled, ‘We will not be fooled again, Part 3’, Skelton-Cline expressed his clear disgust at the behaviour of some National Democratic Party (NDP) members following the special convention on April 18, 2026. 

The NDP, he said, came to the public before its internal election, spreading the news that the NDP family is back together and unified. “They even put up a billboard about integrity and all kinds of stuff they put up there,” Skelton-Cline reminded. 

However, in the days following the internal election, the public is seeing a different type of attitude from some NDP members. 

Mark H. Vanterpool a sore loser?

Skelton-Cline called out former legislator Mark H. Vanterpool, who, before the internal election, had his vehicle wrapped to become a driving NDP billboard. 

“Now we don’t got the truck no more,” he added, alluding to Vanterpool being a sore loser having lost the Chairmanship of the NDP to Hon Marlon A. Penn. “Not only that, it’s come to our understanding that the member is considering running in the Fourth District.”

Skelton-Cline continued that some are saying the proceedings of Saturday night were “rigged”, but said, “Everybody goes out and campaigns, everybody trying to stack the deck with their delegates and when you don’t win, you cry foul, pick up your marbles and want to go home.”

This type of behaviour from some members of the NDP was described by Skelton-Cline as “political immaturity”. 

I will help Hon Luce D. Hodge-Smith

The commentator said that while it is alleged Vanterpool is considering running in the Fourth District independently, it disturbs him. 

“One of the things that disturbs me is that some people come before us…ask us to do one thing, ask us to believe one thing, behave in magnanimous ways, demonstrating why they’re the right person and then when things don’t turn out their way, they dispatch themselves.”

He added that while it is their right to do so, they are also grown people, and he is looking at the situation from the perspective of the Virgin Islands population. 

Skelton-Cline said while it is claimed that Hon Hodge-Smith is in a “weakened position”, he will help her in her campaign if it, in fact, materialises that Vanterpool is running in the same district. 

“I will commit to helping her to put a sheet of licks on any former member that comes in that district, because this kind of behaviour is reckless…because at some point, we've got to call a thing by its name.”