Word: statehood
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...With only 1% of the vote -- just 22,000 ballots in 1988 -- needed to win a seat, the 120-member Knesset must give house room to a stunning variety of opinions in an exceptionally opinionated nation. Its 15 parties offer something for everyone: ultra- Orthodox rabbis who disdain Israeli statehood, Zionist leftists and Arab communists who support Palestinian statehood, and right-wing extremists who want to expel the Palestinians...
...triangle has been rearranged. The New Progressive Party, led by former Governor Carlos Romero Barcelo, argues that statehood would mean not only political equality but also more food on the table. The Popular Democratic Party, under incumbent Governor Rafael Hernandez Colon, contends that only an "enhanced" version of commonwealth can protect the island's economy as well as its Hispanic culture. Judging by polls and street-corner opinion, Romero's statehood campaign today enjoys momentum. When the Popular Democrats staged a rally in Mayaguez, only 75 partisans showed up. Watching the Ponce parade, Luisa Rodriguez, an unemployed mother of seven...
Washington helped promote the change in political dynamics. In January 1989 Hernandez proposed that Congress give formal blessing to a plebiscite with three options: independence, statehood or a modified form of commonwealth giving the island greater self-government. A month later, George Bush endorsed the proposal and reaffirmed the G.O.P.'s traditional support for statehood. But Bush signaled that he intended more than the token effort made by Republican predecessors. Bush and the Republican National Committee are trying to pry Hispanics from their traditional Democratic loyalty. Proposing full political equality for the island seized from Spain in 1898 helps that...
...Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last summer approved a bill that would sanction a binding plebiscite in 1991. However, the details horrified the Governor's faction: under the Senate bill, the statehood option seems an instant gold mine. Islanders would get a congressional delegation plus full parity with the other 50 states in federal welfare assistance immediately, while the present full exemption from federal taxes on individuals and companies would be phased out only gradually. About 40% of the island's 3.3 million residents now qualify for federally supported food assistance. According to Hernandez, average monthly benefits...
...local Pooh-Bahs of Washington share a consensus in favor of statehood for the capital. Congressional Democrats nominally support creation of "New Columbia," which would have two seats in the Senate and one in the House, all certain to be filled by Democrats. But Republican opposition and the district's propensity for comic-opera government keep statehood low on the agenda...