New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico

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New Progressive Party
Party Chairman	Luis Fortuño
Senate Leader	Jorge De Castro Font (NPP Majority Leader), Kenneth McClintock (Senate President)
House Leader	Iris Miriam Ruiz (NPP Majority Leader), José "El Cano" Aponte (House President)
Founded	January 5, 1968
Headquarters	Hato Rey, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Political ideology	Statehood, Annexation to the United States
Political position	Fiscal: Liberal (in the pro-Republican Party Faction); Keynesian in the Democratic Party Social: Supports Puerto Rico sovereignty through the United States and improved distribution of wealth through something akin to "equality with other U.S. citizens that may elect the government that holds sovereignty over them (currently not available)"
International affiliation	United States Democratic Party, United States Republican Party
Color(s)	Blue and White
Website	N/A

The New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico (NPP) (Spanish: Partido Nuevo Progresista de Puerto Rico, PNP) is a political party that campaigns for Puerto Rican statehood. It currently controls the Puerto Rican House of Representatives and Senate, Puerto Rico's sole non-voting seat in Congress, as well as 42 of Puerto Rico's 78 mayoral seats, while the governor of Puerto Rico, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, is the leader of the opposition Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico.

Those who follow the NPP ideology are called penepés or estadistas ("statehooders"). Individuals from the NPP may have alliances with either the national Republican Party or the Democratic Party, unlike the Popular Democratic Party, or PDP, which has strong identification with the Democratic Party. In its beginning, the majority of the NPP leaders were also members of the Republican Party, yet the last two elected NPP governors, Carlos Romero Barceló, and Dr. Pedro Rosselló González, are registered Democrats. The Resident Commissioner, Hon. Luis G. Fortuño on the other hand, caucuses with the Republicans. House Speaker José Aponte is a Republican while Senate President Kenneth McClintock is Puerto Rico's Democratic National Committeeman. Luis Fortuño is the current president of the party after defeating Dr. Pedro Rosselló González for the seat and gubernatorial nomination in a party primary on March 2008.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Foundation 1.2 1960s 1.3 1970s 1.4 1980s 1.5 1990s 1.6 2000s 1.6.1 2003 NPP Primaries for Governor 1.6.2 2004 general elections 1.6.3 Senate Conflict 1.6.4 2008 NPP Primaries for Governor 1.6.4.1 Primary Backlash 2 Party logo 3 Important party leaders 3.1 Party Presidents 3.1.1 Party Gubernatorial nominees 3.1.2 Other Impotant Figures 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Foundation

The party traces its beginnings to a 1967 assembly in a sports complex in Country Club, Carolina. On January 5, 1968 (eve of Three King's Day), the party was certified as an official political group by the State Elections Commission of Puerto Rico. The party had roots in a prior pro-statehood party led by Miguel Angel García Méndez. The incipient party campaigned unsuccessfully in favor of statehood in the Puerto Rico status referendum of 1967, even though the historical pro-statehood Puerto Rican Republican Party decided to boycott that plebiscite. Party founder and former Statehood Republican Party standard-bearer Luis A. Ferré defined the New Progressive Party as one which would not be aligned to any of the two U.S. national parties.

[edit] 1960s

Under Luis A. Ferré, the NPP came to power in November 1968 by defeating Luis Negrón López, the chosen candidate of the PDP. Smaller vote totals were obtained by the Partido del Sol led by Roberto Sánchez Vilella and the candidate from the PIP. The governing party was saddled by the break-away candidacy of then-governor Roberto Sánchez Vilella, who had feuded with the PPD leader, Luis Muñoz Marín.

[edit] 1970s

Four years later, in 1972, Ferré lost to the reunified PDP's candidate Rafael Hernández Colón by the biggest percentual margin since the NPP's creation (7.3%), but in 1976, under the leadership of Carlos Romero Barceló, the NPP returned to power. Romero Barceló would face Hernández Colón three times for the seat of Puerto Rican governor.

[edit] 1980s

Carlos A. Romero Barceló won the governor's seat in 1980 by a narrow 3,000 vote margin. A prominent event during his term was a controversy wherein two young men, who had gone to Cerro Maravilla, a communications facility for the Island, to intercept the transmission, were shot dead (also see: Alejandro González Malavé) by state police. At first, it was reported that they had been shot because they resisted arrest, but then it became clear that they had been shot execution style while under police custody. The opposition PDP, in control of the legislature, orchestrated televised hearings in which they attempted to prove the whole incident was planned by the administration of Gov. Romero Barceló. Further scandals erupted when it became possible that an undercover police agent that was with the two men had actually engineered the whole episode. This, combined with the fact that the then-mayor of San Juan, Hernán Padilla, left the party to form his own party, Partido Renovación Puertorriqueña (or PRP), allowed Hernández Colón to obtain re-election in 1984. In 1988, the NPP candidate, Baltasar Corrada del Río, the former resident commissioner, ran for governor but lost to Hernández Colón.

[edit] 1990s

The NPP came back to power in 1992, when Pedro Juan Rosselló González, a pediatric surgeon, became governor by defeating Luis Muñoz Marín's daughter Victoria Muñoz Mendoza, the PDP candidate, to become governor.

Rosselló launched an anti-crime campaign known as "Mano dura contra el crimen" ("Strong hand against crime") in which the Puerto Rico National Guard was used to assist state police. During Pedro J. Rosselló's term a number of large-scale infrastructure projects were undertaken, including the "Tren Urbano" (Metro Rail System), the "Superaqueduct", and the "Coliseo Puerto Rico" (Puerto Rico Coliseum). His policies also included a push toward privatization of public entities and free health care for the poor.

He led the NPP in two campaigns for Puerto Rican statehood in 1993 and 1998 in which locally-enacted plebiscites were held to consult the Puerto Rican public on the political status with the United States. He supported the proposal for a referendum in Puerto Rico to define the political status of the island. However, the bill died in committee in the Senate of the United States. Nevertheless, Rosselló carried out a non-binding plebiscite in 1998 which gave electors four options and a fifth None of the Above column. The opposing Popular Democratic Party led a campaign to boycott the plebiscite and called the electorate to vote for the None of the Above column. The boycott was successful, as the None of the Above column garnered more votes than all of the other options. Rosselló argued before Congress that statehood had won the plebiscite as he later said that the Fifth column was an invalid vote.

In the 1996 elections, the NPP candidate, Rosselló, defeated opponent Héctor Luis Acevedo (PDP), mayor of San Juan at the time, and Representative David Noriega (PIP), for a second term after obtaining more than one million votes and the largest victory margin of any candidate since 1964.

In 1998, the sale of the state-owned Puerto Rico Telephone Company (PRTC) to GTE for $1.9 billion led to a general strike organized by labor unions and backed by opposition forces. Rosselló's popularity took a hit along with the NPP's due to the backlash of the many images of protesters.

[edit] 2000s

Rosselló stepped down as governor after eight years in power in 2000. His period as governor was marked by the Vieques protests and major economic growth due to the coincidence of the emerging Internet. In 2000, Carlos I. Pesquera, Secretary of Transportation under Rosselló, ran for governor. Pre-election polls had him at a considerable advantage over his PDP opponent, Sila María Calderón Cerra. As the election grew closer, Calderón closed the gap as Pesquera's image was harmed by a PDP campaign focusing on corruption under Rosselló's tenure.

It also did not help Pesquera that the Acting US District Attorney Guillermo Gil said in June of 2000 (three months before the November 2000 election) "corruption has a name and it is called the New Progressive Party" while announcing a grand jury indictment. The grand jury had accused 18 people - including two mayors from Rosselló's New Progressive Party - of running an extortion scheme that skimmed $800,000 in kickbacks from a $56 million government contract. During a news conference, Gil told journalists that the extorted money had ended up in the coffers of the New Progressive Party. This and other actions by Gil were object of many ethics complaints to the US Department of Justice by NPP leaders.

In this environment, the NPP lost the 2000 election, losing the Governor's seat, the Resident Commissioner, and the state legislature. This was the first election since its creation, that the NPP suffered a vote reduction. Leo Díaz assumed the NPP Presidency, but it was short-lived as Pesquera returned to occupy the position after defeating Díaz.

Turmoil consumed the NPP during the first two years of the 2001-2005 term. The Secretary of Education, under the Rossello's administration, Victor Fajardo, was charged and convicted by federal agencies of appropriating millions of federal funds directed to the Education Department.^[1] The former House Speaker and Republican National Committee Man, Edison Misla Aldarondo was also charged with extortion by the US Attorney's Office, and was forced to resign.^[2] In an ironic turn of events, NPP figures charged with federal corruption crimes were also charged with corruption by the Puerto Rico Justice Department using new anti-corruption state laws that the NPP had enacted. In 2001, Calderon named a Blue Ribbon Committee that was dedicated to investigate government transactions under Rossello's two terms.

[edit] 2003 NPP Primaries for Governor

In July 2002, several of the party's leaders were involved in an incident at the Office of Women's Affairs. Pesquera led a phalanx of pro-statehood advocates and the press into the government office whose administrator had refused to display the American Flag alongside the flag of Puerto Rico. A jury acquitted Pesquera and other followers of any wrongdoing.

In March 2003, Rosselló, who had been living in the state of Virginia, returned to the island, responding to the many calls and visits he received from prominent citizens and politicians. Rosselló subsequently defeated Pesquera in the NPP primary for the gubernatorial nomination.

[edit] 2004 general elections

The fall 2004 campaign was lively and controversial. Rosselló's prior administration was repeatedly painted as corrupt, while his PDP opponent (Calderón chose not to run for re-election) Anibal Acevedo Vila (PDP) was initially behind in the polls. In his performance in televised debates, Acevedo's campaign gained momentum, aided in part by the favorable press he received from the island media outlets. In pre-election polls, Rosselló led by double digits, but ultimately Rosselló lost by some 3,000 votes (1,200 votes went as write-in for Carlos Pesquera) proving that the PDP's strategy worked once again. Rosselló challenged the electoral results alleging that split ticket votes, which had always been counted before, were now illegal. After a lengthy court battle decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (located in Boston, MA), Acevedo Vila was certified as governor.

[edit] Senate Conflict

As 2005 began, Rosselló became a Senator for the Arecibo district after elected Senator Victor Loubriel resigned from his seat, effectively gaining a seat for which he did not run. Thus started a struggle between Senate President Kenneth McClintock and Rossello for control of the Senate Presidency . The dispute ended in a stalemate as McClintock refused to leave the position, a stance respected by the PDP minority senators and 5 other NPP senators. This led to the expulsion from the party of McClintock as well as two of the NPP senators who backed him, a matter which led McClintock to file suit in San Juan Superior Court. The NPP has been torn by infighting since.

[edit] 2008 NPP Primaries for Governor

On March 7, 2007, Rosselló stated that he was no longer interested in the Senate Presidency and is now focusing his attention in preventing Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño from winning the March 2008 gubernatorial primary, and has allowed his name to be placed in nomination for the party's gubernatorial primary. McClintock and four other senators won in San Juan Superior Court a suit to nullify the sanctions and expulsions that the party leadership has levied against them. The Puerto Rico Supreme Court confirmed the lower court decision by a 5-to-1 vote. As a result, McClintock and his supporters are recognized as NPP members and free to run under the party banner.In March 9, 2008, Pedro Rosselló conceded the victory to Luis Fortuño after a large margin of votes in favor of his opponent in the NPP party primaries for the presidency of the party and gubernatorial nomination. Rosselló admitted defeat even before the votes were completely tallied claiming Fortuño as the next candidate of the PNP party. In Rosselló's conceding speech he said "Luis Fortuño has been selected by the people to be the new president of this party and the candidate for governor. I always say the people speaks and I obey, Fortuño here is your party and here is your office (signaling the party's official headquarters). Now its up to you, the loyal members of this party, to make sure that this new leadership works for the statehood for Puerto Rico"^[3]. After this conceding speech it was rumored and even announced at Fortuño's headquarters that the former Governor would arrive there along with his loyal supporter and mayor of the capital city of San Juan, Jorge Santini, but after Fortuño's followers waited for hours to see their leaders united neither Rosselló or Santini arrived. After the primary was over it was heavily rumored by many that Rosselló would not be campaigning for Fortuño and that he'd resign as senator to go back to his home in Virginia. On March 10, 2008, Rosselló sent the media a written statement regarding his future in which he confirmed he will be retiring from active politics and will not be campaigning for any candidate, however he will finish his term as Senator for the Arecibo District.

[edit] Primary Backlash

As soon as the results of the March 9, 2008 primaries were announced NPP's Second Vice President, "Doña" Miriam Ramírez de Ferrer, announced her resignation immediately "Effectively right now I am no longer the Second Vice President of this Party. You will not see me ever again involved in active politics, party reunions or party meetings, as I now plan to become a private citizen. Theres a lot of things I haven't done I want to do, and I'll also do some things I have to do to help the statehood cause". Ramírez was a candidate for Resident Commissioner in the primaries and was openly supporting Rosselló. She lost to Fortuño's candidate, Pedro Pierluisi, and to another Rosselló supporter who was also defeated, Charlie Rodríguez. When Ramírez was asked by the media if she will vote for Fortuño, she replied "My vote is secret". This came as no surprise as she had commented to the media before the primaries "I'd rather cut my hand than vote for Fortuño". Another strong voice against Fortuño was NPP former President, Leo Díaz. Díaz accused Fortuño and his wife to having ties with PDP law firms and with colonialist interests. In November 4, 2007 Díaz said "In this primary the life of this party is in jeopardy. The other candidate, Fortuño, isn't a real statehood defender! He should explain why does he have ties with PDP's law firms and why do the colonialist special interests finance his campaign[...]"^[4], this comments were made in a activity called Con Fuerza Para vencer. Jorge Santini, San Juan Mayor, also made strong statements against Fortuño during the primary campaign as he supported Rosselló. He said that Fortuño wasnt a "Full time leader" and that he "made arrangements with other causes"^[5]. Most of Rosselló supporters were elected at the primary and have endorsed Fortuño as their candidate for Governor, including Jorge Santini, who has been accused of being hypocritical after he leveled so much criticism at the man who is now the president of his own party.

[edit] Party logo

The party is strongly associated with the color blue in Puerto Rico because of its logo. Since the logo features a palm tree, many Puerto Ricans call the NPP "La Palma".

Curiously enough, the use of a palm tree as a party symbol by the NPP was suggested, indirectly, by the opposition. In the original 1967 status plebiscite, then Puerto Rico governor Roberto Sanchez Vilella asked one of his then staff members, future governor Rafael Hernandez Colon to come up with three ideas for art clips, as to identify each of the three status options in the ballot and assist illiterate voters who might not be able to read it. In his book "Vientos de Cambio", Hernandez Colón recalls that he conceived the three symbols while at the backyard of his father-in-law's house in Ponce, Puerto Rico. One of the symbols (the one which eventually represented the statehood option in the ballot) was a "palma real" (Roystonea regia), a species of palm tree that is native to the Caribbean. The group "Estadistas Unidos", the statehood supporters who broke rank with García Méndez to participate at the plebiscite, adopted the palm tree as a potential party symbol when they incorporated the NPP. Due to electoral law restrictions, however, they were forbidden to use a "palma real" as a logo because of its previous use in an election; therefore, a coconut (Cocos nucifera) palm tree was used instead. The use of the coconut palm tree as a symbol by the NPP persists to this day.

The logo's original version consisted of a light blue palm tree, partially encircled by words in a semi-circle (the exact color hue for the logo being that of the United Nations flag, as a personal request from the party founder, Luis A. Ferré. The original logo had the party's name surrounding it; eventually the words "estadidad, seguridad, progreso" ("statehood, security, progress" in English) substituted the party name. The logo later enclosed the palm tree in a blue oval and reversed its colors. The tonality of blue used in the newer logo was eventually changed to a deep navy blue, as to liken it to that of the canton of the United States' flag.

[edit] Important party leaders

[edit] Party Presidents

(Order: Previous - Present)

• Luis A. Ferré
• Carlos Romero Barceló
• Baltasar Corrada del Rio
• Carlos Romero Barceló
• Dr. Pedro J. Rosselló González
• Carlos Pesquera
• Norma Burgos
• Leo Díaz Urbina
• Carlos Pesquera
• Dr. Pedro J. Rosselló González
• Luis Fortuño

[edit] Party Gubernatorial nominees

• Luis A. Ferré
• Carlos Romero Barceló
• Baltasar Corrada del Rio
• Dr. Pedro J. Rosselló González
• Ing. Carlos Pesquera
• Dr. Pedro J. Rosselló González
• Luis Fortuño

[edit] Other Impotant Figures

• Pedro Pierluisi (former Puerto Rico Attorney General, Current Resident Commissioner Candidate)
• Jorge Santini (Mayor of San Juan and NPP First Vice President)
• José Aponte (Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives)
• Kenneth McClintock (President of the Puerto Rico Senate and DNC member)
• Carlos Mendez Martinez (Current Mayor of Aguadilla and GOP State Chair)
• Jorge De Castro Font (Majority leader)
• Margarita Nolasco (Senator)
• Anibal Vega Borges (Mayor of Toa Baja)
• Héctor O'Neill García (Mayor of Guaynabo)
• Ramón Luis Rivera (former Mayor of Bayamón)
• Ramón Luis Rivera Jr. (current Mayor of Bayamón)
• Dr. Miriam Ramírez "Doña Miriam" (Statehood advocate, former senator and former NPP Second Vice President)
• Iris Miriam Ruiz (House Majority Leader and president of the NPP women's organization)
• Norma Burgos (Current senator and former Secretary of State)
• Luis Oscar Casillas "El General" (Statehood advocate, communicator and community leader)
• Jorge Blanco and Wilfredo Blanco Pi (NPP's official journalists)

[edit] See also

• List of political parties in Puerto Rico
• Politics of Puerto Rico

[edit] References

http://www.endi.com/noticia/portada/noticias/triunfan_los_disidentes/230159

[edit] External links

v • d • e Political parties in Puerto Rico Registered parties New Progressive Party - Popular Democratic Party - Puerto Rican Independence Party - Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico Party Other parties Hostosian National Independence Movement - Socialist Front - Socialist Workers Movement Portal:Politics - List of political parties - Politics of Puerto Rico