Posted on 05/16/2018 5:26:27 AM PDT by cll
New data has come in to measure in certifiable amounts how many Puerto Rican residents have fled the nation in recent months.
Following the devastation left behind from hurricane Irma last September, speculation swirled over how many of the island residents would be transplanting to the U.S. mainland, and specifically how many would become established in Florida.
With the level of destruction to the infrastructure, it was a given that an outward-moving wave of PR residents would take place. Over the past five years alone, the number of people fleeing the island nation’s debt crisis has been estimated in the range of 200,000. Following Irma’s rampant and varied damage estimates, expectations were that Florida could end up accepting between 50,000, and 100,000 new arrivals. But these were speculative numbers.
Now a private firm has come out with measurable totals, based on cell phone data taken from August 2017 through this past February. Teralytics, a New York tech company, has partnered with one major cell phone provider to measure the travel of 500,000 smartphones, using the data to map the travels of residents from Puerto Rico. This establishes a defined track, as well as establish how many have returned, versus those becoming permanent residents.
(Excerpt) Read more at sunshinestatenews.com ...
One of the concerns is how this may alter the voting landscape within the state. Puerto Ricans have long been a traditional-leaning demographic. In the last presidential primary, 58,000 voted Democratic 37,000 Republican. But in deeper analysis, it may not be an automatic gain for Dems.
Two factors could tamp down the party-line impact. Many of those counties with the largest influx are already traditional Democratic strongholds. The tendency to flip offices may not fully materialize. Additionally, a fair number of Puerto Ricans have shown a tendency in recent years to move to an independent position following their move.
The reasons for that are unclear (seeing their government and economy struggle in recent years under Democrat rule may be one influence), but the net gain is still in question. Note how those moving here in the years prior to the storm have not altered the political landscape in demonstrable fashion. Republicans are still in power in Tallahassee, and the prior influx did not prevent Donald Trump from taking Florida in the general election. That independent tendency of new voters can be seen as an opportunity to court a new voting block by State GOP leadership.
Maybe some of the takers in that lot are coming to appreciate that you need a healthy, growing capitalist economy to keep the gravy train chugging along.
Socialism won’t be able to keep them in the style to which they’d like to become accustomed.
PR = Nation ?
So there it is, a Blue Wave. Adios Florida!
Interesting that some have headed to the southern Sierra Nevada.
A less biased non-MSM view (via a link in the article) of the situation showing that large numbers of Puerto Ricans have returned to Puerto Rico, so it may not be the vote bonanza that the Rats are counting on:
And many of my friends have moved not to Florida or New York, but to the deep south like Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. It helps that they are mostly retired military, and we in the service have long standing ties with Dixie. I’ve maintained that the average island Puerto Rican (as opposed to those bred in new York and Chicago) have many similarities with the “red necks”: independent, religious, large families, like guns, love pork, and don’t mind a junked car in their front yard. :-)
“”Interesting that some have headed to the southern Sierra Nevada.””
How did you get that from the article?
So why does PR have such terrible problems?
Ones I know are Trumpers!!!!! Solid
Nope...they will vote Scott and Trump
There’s a red dot on the map.
Since West Side Story came out, Puerto Rico gets almost nothing but bad press (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it). And then we’ve had a succession of bad governments since 2000, then a severe drought in 2015, the Zika virus fiasco of 2016, and the monster hurricanes of 2017 didn’t help either. We can’t seem to catch a break lately.
But still, it is not half bad down here and I wouldn’t live anywhere else. Well, maybe in Alabama, where I’ve gone to school/been stationed.
When it comes to how Puerto Ricans vote WHEN IN Puerto Rico, nobody talks about WHY.
When people have become dependent upon government services to help keep them above water, naturally they’re going to vote for the party or people that can get them the most bang or freebies for their votes, especially when there is a huge scarcity of well-paying jobs, never mind jobs at all.
Now, when people go to places where there are meaningful and plentiful jobs to be had, they may and voting differently, especially if they no longer have to depend upon government handouts.
Just read your narrative of Puerto Rico after the hurriicane.
Well done and a perspective that one who spends Florida hurricanes in Maine cannot have. Also as a meteorologist who worried through a couple while in VietNam,I commend your clarifying their size and shape and motion.
Larry
Thanks.
A typical cancerous liberal move, metastizing to CONUS!!
Bottom line is that Trump is only POTUS because he won Florida by about 100,000 votes.
The pressure by communists on the Puerto Rican immigrants to Florida to stymie his reelection will be huge, a propaganda effort unprecedented.
The right had best get out in front of this issue, and don’t look to the Cubans to help.
Right Wing Puerto Ricans need to be in charge of the counter propaganda effort.
Florida is the whole ball game.
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