Word: puerto
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Puerto Rico won't be a swing state in November. It's not even a state, and its 4 million residents aren't allowed to vote in the general election. Its partisan politics have little in common with the mainland's; the main competitors are not Democrats and Republicans, but "commonwealthers" and "statehooders," and while they are divided into reds and blues, the reds of the commonwealth party are more likely to favor Democrats, while the blues of the statehood party skew more Republican. Puerto Rico residents do serve in the U.S. military, but they do not pay U.S. income...
...other words, Puerto Rico's June 1 Democratic primary is the kind of contest that Hillary Clinton's campaign would dismiss as meaningless if Barack Obama were favored to win it. But Clinton is favored to win it easily, so she's casting it as an important test of strength among Hispanic voters, and she campaigned there this past holiday weekend. There will actually be 55 delegates at stake, more than in most state primaries, so it won't be meaningless. And it will be unique, because Puerto Rican politics always are. "Politics is our national pastime," says Miguel Lausell...
...United States seized the archipelago of Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898, but most boricuas still speak Spanish at home. It is now a semi-autonomous commonwealth, separate and not quite equal. Its residents are U.S. citizens, and they do pay U.S. payroll taxes and receive Social Security benefits, but their sole representative in Congress has no voting power - and when it comes to presidential elections, they have no voting power either. Puerto Ricans narrowly voted to maintain the status quo in three non-binding plebiscites, most recently in 1998, but the status question is still the dividing line that...
...battle, Puerto Rico's last contested primary, President Jimmy Carter's aides lured statehooders with promises of a new plebiscite, while most commonwealthers lined up behind Senator Kennedy. But the Clinton and Obama campaigns have been trying to unite supporters across party lines, while still exploiting the island's powerful party machines. "This is all brand-new for us," says Obama's national field director, Temo Figueroa. "We're used to grassroots politics, get the names, get the emails, but here you really have to work within their system. You've got to get to the right mayor...
...Clinton and Obama have both pledged to support self-determination for Puerto Rico, which appeals to both parties, although Obama has suggested that he supports a constitutional assembly to address the issue, a bit of a shout-out to commonwealthers. Obama has snagged the endorsement of Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila, who presides over the commonwealth party's machine, and is running for reelection even though he's under indictment for campaign finance violations, allegations which he denies. But commonwealthers like former Gov. Carlos Romero Barcelo support Clinton, as does Senate President and statehooder Kenneth McClintock, while the statehooder vying...