Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 194
What Just Happened?
“The Puerto Rico Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Pedro Pierluisi’s swearing-in as governor last week was unconstitutional, extending the political turmoil that has paralyzed the U.S. territory’s government,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Pierluisi took office last Friday moments after Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resigned in the wake of a scandal over vulgar and derogatory text messages between him and his advisers.”
A new Gallup poll finds 66% of Americans are in favor admitting Puerto Rico, now a U.S. territory, as a U.S. state.
This is consistent with the 59% to 65% range of public support Gallup has recorded for Puerto Rico statehood since 1962.
“The embattled governor of Puerto Rico Ricardo Rosselló has announced that he will not seek reelection in November 2020 but will not resign,” ABC News reports.
Axios: “Protestors took to the streets last week to demand Rosselló resign over leaked Telegram messages between the governor and his top aides that were reported to include misogynistic, profane and homophobic comments. Some of the messages were reported to have mocked victims of Hurricane Maria, a disaster over which Rosselló’s administration has been criticized for mishandling.”
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló (D) said that “as Democratic candidates begin visiting the island ahead of the 2020 presidential nominating contests there is one question they must answer: whether the U.S. territory should become a state,” Reuters reports.
Said Rosselló: “What I want to hear everybody talk about is their stance on the equality of U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico? It should be a yes or no answer. There should be no room for wiggle.”
President Trump once again claimed his administration did a “great job” in its emergency response to hurricane damage in Puerto Rico.
Said Trump: “We got A Pluses for our recent hurricane work in Texas and Florida (and did an unappreciated great job in Puerto Rico, even though an inaccessible island with very poor electricity and a totally incompetent Mayor of San Juan). We are ready for the big one that is coming!”
First Read: “The day after remembering 3,000 Americans who died on 9/11, the president is calling another moment when another 3,000 Americans died ‘an unappreciated great job.'”
James Hohmann: “The freshest data reveals that there has been no surge in new Puerto Rican voters. During the nine months before the hurricane — January through September of 2017 — there were 343,000 people who registered to vote in Florida, and 18 percent were Hispanic… During the nine months after the hurricane — from last October through the end of June — there were 326,000 new registered voters. Just 21 percent were Hispanic. That’s a pretty small uptick — and not necessarily explained by Puerto Rican registration at all.”
Said Democratic strategist Steve Schale: “The concern I’ve had for a while is that … the Maria impact was probably not going to be as significant as people initially thought. We’ve got two-and-a-half months left for voter registration. But these numbers show it’s not going to happen organically.”
New York Times: “More than 168,000 people have flown or sailed out of Puerto Rico to Florida since the hurricane, landing at airports in Orlando, Miami and Tampa, and the port in Fort Lauderdale. Nearly half are arriving in Orlando, where they are tapping their networks of family and friends. An additional 100,000 are booked on flights to Orlando through Dec. 31… Large numbers are also settling in the Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach areas.”
“With so many arriving so abruptly, the migration is expected to transform Orlando, a city that has already become a stronghold of Puerto Ricans, many of them fleeing the island’s economic crisis in recent years. The Puerto Rican population of Florida has exploded from 479,000 in 2000 to well over one million today, according to the Pew Research Center. The number of Puerto Ricans in Orlando was 210,000 in 2014… and since then the count has risen rapidly as more arrived during the economic crisis.”
“The impact of this latest wave is likely to stretch from schools and housing to the work force and even politics. Puerto Ricans, who are American citizens and tilt Democratic, could sway the electoral results of one of the country’s most pivotal swing states.”
President Trump “served notice that he may pull back federal workers from Puerto Rico, effectively threatening to abandon the U.S. territory amid a humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria,” the Washington Post reports.
“More than three weeks after Maria, more than 80 percent of the island is still without power. Just 63 percent of the island’s residents have access to clean drinking water, and only 60 percent of wastewater treatment plants are operating, according to FEMA.”
New York Times: “Every day dozens of Puerto Ricans pour into the Orlando area, fleeing their homes and lives ravaged by Hurricane Maria. In the months to come, officials here said, that number could surge to more than 100,000. And those numbers could remake politics in Florida, a state where the last two presidential and governor’s races were decided by roughly one percentage point or less.”
“There are more than a million Puerto Ricans in Florida, a number that has doubled since 2001, driven largely until now by a faltering economy. But their political powers have evolved slowly in this state, and the wave of potential voters from the island could quickly change that calculus.”
Mike Allen: “Long after people have finished talking about Tom Price’s flights or tax reform or NFL protests, they’ll remember how Trump handled Puerto Rico. So the stakes are massive for the hours ahead.”
Rick Klein: “The first two storms, it appears, were only wind-ups to the presidential moment that presents itself now. The crisis in Puerto Rico figures to define President Trump’s responses to this remarkable string of powerful storms. After first seeming to blame Puerto Rico’s poor infrastructure and fiscal crises, Trump is now praising FEMA and expressing his wish that the ‘press would treat fairly.’ But this is one where claims of ‘fake news’ will likely be subsumed by the images and realities.”
“Those realities include millions of American citizens in total crisis. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is warning that the lack of ‘clear command, control and communication’ will cause the situation to ‘deteriorate rapidly.’ The general who oversaw the federal response to Hurricane Katrina is calling the situation – yes – ‘like Katrina.'”
“Puerto Rico missed most of a $58 million bond payment, the first default by the U.S. commonwealth in what may become one of the largest restructurings in the history of the $3.7 trillion market for debt sold by U.S. state and local governments,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
More about Taegan Goddard →