Germaine Simonson is a first-term incumbent and vice chair of the Health, Education & Human Services Committee, representing Hardrock, Pinon, Forest Lake, Rough Rock, and Black Mesa. Her interview with Cal Nez covered her chapter record and senior-center funding, a contested budget legislation she sponsored, the missing $24 million, 638 oversight, and the Navajo Business Opportunity Act. Below are the questions Cal asked, short summaries of Simonson's answers in our own words, and follow-ups a voter might still want answered.
Watch or read the full interview, and see the scorecard, on Germaine Simonson’s profile. This page is a nonpartisan summary; the Diné Civic Center does not endorse any candidate.
Simonson pointed to concrete, funded wins — new senior centers for Pinon and Hard Rock plus three renovations, approved in 2024 — and described pressing the engineering and community-development offices in committee to move projects that, on the Nation, often take eight or more years.
Simonson gave herself an A, citing a 95%-plus HEHSC attendance rate and a sponsorship record that includes routine ARPA and CAP project legislation and the 477 plan for the Department of Children and Family Services.
Simonson defended introducing the President's emergency budget legislation, explaining the budget standoff between the executive and legislative branches and the vetoed amounts. She said the legislative branch's companion piece simply wasn't ready when she introduced the President's, and that following the activity online doesn't capture what actually happened.
Simonson tied it to weak contractor-selection systems and due diligence in Window Rock, noting council approved a broad, vague ARPA appropriation rather than IDSA or Zinni Homes specifically, and that delegates had raised concerns because IDSA was not a general contractor.
Simonson was candid that, three and a half years in, she has realized HEHSC doesn't have real direct say over 638 or IHS operations — they report to the committee, but IHS positions itself as federal and the relationship is government-to-government, so communities, not delegates, decide on 638 contracts.
Simonson said she is familiar with the Act but did not detail specific changes. She closed by urging voters to notice how often candidates promise to “work together,” and to weigh whether they will actually deliver it.
Topics a voter in this district might still want to hear about:
Not a judgment of this candidate — just what a specific, substantive answer includes, so you can weigh any candidate’s response: