With a landslide 68 percent of the vote in Puerto Rico's primary on June 1, Sen. Hillary Clinton became the first presidential candidate in history to bring together two very historically antagonistic segments of the electorate: the pro-statehood and pro-commonwealth forces. With polling stations open just five hours, voters in the Caribbean island gave her 263,120 to Obama's 121,458. Her win depended on both factions agreeing on her.
Clinton essentially moved to the island for a week and traveled through most of its 78 cities and towns in boisterous caravans loaded with giant loudspeakers blaring music and political slogans. One could have concluded she was running for governor. If she had, she probably would have won in a landslide in that contest as well.
Obama had the support of the increasingly unpopular Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila, who employed his faltering political machinery to sway people away from voting, saying that Obama had already won the primary contest in the U.S. anyway. It was an ironic move by leaders of the very political party that in 1948 pushed the United States to grant the island autonomy in its interior affairs, including electing its own members to the governorship and legislature.
Obama's point man on the island, Acevedo, failed to keep voters away, in part because Acevedo's political muscle has become flabby. Under federal investigation for alleged misuse of campaign contributions, which trouble some, he has alienated many by tripling utility fees and imposing the first-ever sales tax.
But there was enough bad blood to go around. On her side, Clinton had one superdelegate, Alvaro Cifuentes, with a reputation that merits suspicion.
Cifuentes served as chief of staff for Gov. Pedro Rossell? in the 1990s, an era officially known as the most corrupt in the island's democratic history. Hundreds of millions of federal dollars were stolen by members of the Rossell? administration and more than 40 are serving prison sentences.
In 2005, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean fired Cifuentes as head of the organization's Hispanic Caucus because he made a racist remark regarding a black member of the DNC.
Puerto Rico's political relationship to the United Status defies easy definitions. Most media, for instance, describe the U.S. as Puerto Rico's "mainland" as if the island were adrift without identity and geography. It is called a territory by some, a colony by others and a nation by almost every Boricua, the indigenous name Puerto Ricans call themselves.
Both Obama and Clinton had promised Puerto Ricans the moon to get votes not only from islanders this month, but also from stateside Puerto Ricans in November. Puerto Ricans everywhere monitored the primary vote on the island, followed the campaigns and kept the phone lines humming between here and there.
Puerto Rican voters do not vote for president, but stateside Puerto Ricans do, and both Clinton and Obama promised to address the myriad of political issues and social problems that plague Puerto Rico (a poverty rate of more than 60 percent; contamination from 60-plus years of military bombing in Vieques; ambiguities concerning Social Security benefits that islanders pay for; and much, much more!).
General elections bring out 85 percent of the Puerto Rican electorate. Islanders have been voting in presidential primaries for barely 30 years, and in the single digits. Yet 20 percent still came out and voted, far more than in any previous primary contest. Considering that voters on the island cannot cast ballots for president but can only send 63 delegates to the Democratic convention, the turnout was confirmation that islanders want Puerto Rico to matter in D.C.
Natalia Muñoz is editor of La Prensa of Western Massachusetts (www.LaPrensaMa.com).
