Vance’s political
career at a glance
PHILIPSBURG--Vance James Jr. was a co-founder of the St. Maarten Patriotic Movement (SPM) in 1979 and became the first formidable political opponent of Democratic Party (DP) political leader the late Claude Wathey.
In 1982, James led a list combined with the Windward Island People’s Movement (WIPM) that contested the Parliamentary election. In 1990 he obtained more personal votes than Wathey and in 1991 the St. Maarten Patriotic Alliance (SPA), successor to SPM, won four seats in the Island Council election, one more than DP.
In 1994, SPA won two seats in Parliament and joined the Miguel Pourier cabinet. James again became parliamentarian till November 1995. In October 1995, after two devastating hurricanes in September and rifts in the local government, DP joined SPA in the local “Government of Reconstruction and Development.”
James stepped down as party leader at the annual SPA congress in March 1997. In December 1997, he resigned as Commissioner and in July 1998, after 19 consecutive years in the Island Council, he resigned from the island territory’s highest elected body.
James returned to the political scene in early 1999 as founder and leader of the National People’s Party (NPP) which contested the Island Council election that year and won one seat which ensured James’ return to the Island Council.
NPP and SPA would later join forces to make up National Alliance and contest the Parliamentary elections in 2002, after which James returned to Parliament as one of the two NA members.
However, NPP did poorly in the 2003 Island Council election, which saw the party losing its lone seat. That set the stage for James’ eventual quiet retirement from active party politics.
