Comments on: Obama Supporter Charged in Campaign Finance Probe

By: puerto rican politics

puerto rican politics — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 09:09:31 +0000

puerto rican politics…

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By: CPC

CPC — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 05:05:13 +0000

A.C. you’re right, but remember that statehooders are either republicans or democrats, meanwhile populares are just democrats. Actually the Puerto Rico Democratic chairman is a popular and he supports Clinton, while the governor supports Obama.

DCrepublican, regarding local elections, they all take place the same day. They take place the same day as the national election and you get 3 ballots, one for governor and the non-voting Congressional delegate, one for the PR legislature, and one for town mayor.

By: DC Republican

DC Republican — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:17:40 +0000

Here is the link to Report by the President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status: PDF File

By: A.C.

A.C. — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:00:55 +0000

CPC mostly has it right. As far as our politicians’ support of American presidential candidates, I believe it mostly hinges on their support for specific views regarding status.

If I remember correctly (so don’t quote me on this) Hillary supports the findings of the “President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status” which stated that the current system is unconstitutional and recommends a process that would culminate in Puerto Ricans choosing between statehood and independence. So, it’s easy to see why “statehooders” support her. Commonwealth party members, such as the current governor, obviously repudiate the report and all its supporters since said report basically delegitimizes the form of government they prefer and represent.

Again, if I remember correctly, Obama has made no such statements on status and offered no direct support for that task force’s report, which endears him to the “populares”, or followers of the Commonwealth party. He’s just said (as they all do) that the will of the Puerto Rican people will be respected. And let’s hope so, since under the current arrangement (according to that report, which can be easily found and read online) Congress could toss in Puerto Rico as a bonus in a trade agreement with India, if it felt like it.

By: DC Republican

DC Republican — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:48:10 +0000

I apologize, in “General Election,” I was referring to the Governor’s election.

And then the more local races, meaning those on the municipal level (if there are any).

Even so, 80% is impressive, especially if that is consistent.

By: CPC

CPC — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:42:41 +0000

For the presidential primaries is hard to say because there hasn’t been a democratic primary since 1988. There is no voting for presidential elections. US citizens living in Puerto Rico can’t vote in the general election. It is not a matter of being puertorrican, it is a matter of physically being in Puerto Rico. If a mainland resident moves to Puerto Rico, he can’t vote. If a Puero Rico resident moves to the mainland then he can vote. Local election turnout is pretty high, usually around 80%. Local primaries were held just a couple of weeks ago and the Statehood party had over 700,000 people vote in its primary with membership being around a million party members.

By: DC Republican

DC Republican — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:30:36 +0000

CPC or AC – What is turnout normally like for the Primaries? Then the General Election? Are we talking hundreds? Thousands?

And then what is the turnout for the more local elections?

By: CPC

CPC — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:51:41 +0000

Following on A.C.’s point about the primaries, it was coming to the point that the Governor’s followers were gonna vote for Obama and statehood supporters for Clinton, given that P.R.’s former Governor Rossello endorsed Hillary. Sometimes it’s hard to understand why statehooders would allow themselves with the “populares” in the Democratic Party. And what’s more perplexing is the fact that “populares” believe in voting in presidential primaries, but strongly opposse voting in presidential elections.

By: John Larson

John Larson — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:33:26 +0000

I’ll second that. Great follow-up, AC.

By: DC Republican

DC Republican — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:31:19 +0000

A.C., thank you very much!

You know, you have some good insights and seem to be a great writer… may I suggest starting a blog?

I think you definitely have enough knowledge of both US and PR politics to generate a good amount of interest and traffic.