Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla may be quietly working against President Obama’s proposal for a plebiscite in Puerto Rico to resolve the question of the territory’s future status that the Governor says he supports. One of his “commonwealth” party’s most reliable voices in Congress spoke against the proposal in the Senate last Thursday.
In a written statement, Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) also asserted that Puerto Rico’s local status plebiscite last November was unfair and used the “commonwealth” party’s numbers for the ‘results’ of the vote instead of the very different official, real figures.
Wicker’s words and arguments echoed those used by Garcia and other party leaders. The Senator also praised Garcia in his statement.
Wicker, additionally, inserted a resolution on the plebiscite of Puerto Rico’s “commonwealth” party-dominated legislature into the Congressional Record. Garcia’s Washington, DC office has distributed the resolution in Congress.
Garcia’s lead lobbyist in the nation’s capital, Charlie Black, is close to Wicker. The senator has acted in response to Black requests for the “commonwealth” party before.
Garcia has said that Black, who is paid $50,000 a month by the territorial government, will not be paid for lobbying against the plebiscite results.
Although Garcia and Puerto Rico’s legislature have publicly supported Obama’s proposed plebiscite, the Governor’s Washington office Director, Juan Hernandez Mayoral, and leading ‘commonwealthers’ such as Senate President Eduardo Bhatia were unhappy when they learned of it.
The Obama proposal would provide funding for a plebiscite under Federal auspices.
Because the options would have to be possible according to the U.S. Government, the vote could not include a proposal that the “commonwealth” party wants. An essential element of the proposal is for Puerto Rico to be exempt from congressional territory governing authority without becoming a State or a nation — a constitutional impossibility.
The party also wants a new “commonwealth status” to permanently empower the islands to veto the application of Federal laws and to enter into international agreements that require national sovereignty. Its proposal would, further, obligate the U.S. to grant the insular government a new subsidy as well as to continue giving all current assistance and citizenship to Puerto Ricans.
The Obama Administration, like the George W. Bush and Clinton Administrations and congressional authorities of both national parties, has rejected the proposals as impossible for constitutional and other reasons.
Some “commonwealth” party leaders recognize that a plebiscite with Federally-authorized options could not include a “commonwealth” they want.
Party leaders also fear that more Puerto Ricans will vote for statehood if Congress confirms it is an option for Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico’s local plebiscite rejected the islands’ current territory status, also popularly — but misleadingly — also known as “commonwealth,” by 54% and chose statehood among the alternatives by 61.2%.
The results were determined by Puerto Rico’s Elections Commission — which includes the “commonwealth” party’s representative — as are all of the islands’ election results.
But Garcia and other commonwealthers are saying that Puerto Rico’s current status was rejected by just 51.7% and statehood won only 44.4%. They arrive at these artificial results by factoring in ballots with votes not cast on one or both of the plebiscite’s two questions — contrary to law.