Posted on 03/09/2016 3:22:33 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Rafael Rivera left Puerto Rico for central Florida late last year, fed up with the island's escalating debt crisis and dwindling sales at his cellphone shop.
Five months later, Rivera, 36, has a nice apartment in the Orlando suburb of Kissimmee and a job at a nearby Hyundai dealership. He's also registered to vote.
Because Puerto Ricans are the fastest-growing group of voters in a contested corridor of a battleground state, "you could make the case that they're the most important voters in the United States," said Fernand Amandi, a Florida pollster.
"Puerto Rican voters have completely upended the understanding of how the state is going to vote in November," Amandi said. "They could wake up in San Juan, have breakfast and be registered to vote in the U.S. come dinnertime. You see both parties doing a full-court press to win over what could very well be the decisive vote."
Faced with $72 billion in debt and soaring unemployment, Puerto Rico is losing tens of thousands of people each year. The Caribbean island's population dropped each year by 48,000 people from 2010 to 2013, according to data from the Pew Research Center.
Many landed here, along the Interstate 4 corridor that connects Tampa and Daytona Beach, an area characterized by swamps and strip malls and plentiful jobs. The Orlando metro area led the nation in job creation last year, according to Gallup....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailypress.com ...
BTW, we are not talking about people who are just getting here from Puerto Rico. We are talking about people who have been coming here over the years who now make quite a considerable large number.
‘Coming here’ does not “residence” make in the sense of qualifying as a legal resident for voting or paying their fare share of local, state and federal taxes.
Um... Puerto Rico has NOT been a territory since 1952. Since that time it has been a commonwealth.
They have been moving here from the island for years.
So who do these folks vote for?
Are they Clintonistas?
Good question. However, there are reasons to keep it. First, if the U.S. cuts P.R. loose, Communist agents from Cuba and/or Venezuela will make damn sure P.R. falls to a communist dictator. I don't think having a mini-Cuba in the Carribbean is something Americans really want.
Secondly, strategically, it's a good place to have under U.S. control for military reasons, even though Vieques was closed. Still, the U.S. controls the territory.
It's easy pickings for the marxist dictators once the U.S. cuts them loose.
Probably. See too Guam, Virgin Islands, Northern Marianas, Panama Canal zone.
So Massachusetts isn't a state? Massachusets is a commonwealth too!
Panama Canal Zone was give away by jimmy.
OK Thanks.
I wish the elected officials would spell it out to Americans why we keep it as well.
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