Uncertain Future for Puerto Rico’s pro-Commonwealth Party

As it turns 70 years old, the [pro-Commonwealth] Popular Democratic Party (PPD) faces its worst crisis brought on not only by the federal [corruption] charges against its principal leader, [Governor] Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, but also by the complicated economic situation the island has experienced under his administration.

Three prominent PPD members interviewed by this daily could not agree on whether Acevedo will win [re-election in] the November elections. They did agree the PPD is at a crossroads, that the federal indictments are a dark page in the party’s history, and that the cost-of-living increases the island has been living under during the past few years will have an effect at the polls.

Caguas Mayor William Miranda Marín, Senator Eudaldo Báez Galib, and former Secretary of State Ferdinand Mercado acknowledged without reservations that the PPD has not experienced a more serious crisis such as the one it is experiencing now. The internal struggles between [former Governor] Luis Muñoz Marín and [then-Governor] Roberto Sánchez Vilella in 1968 – when the PPD suffered its first electoral defeat – do not come close to what the PPD is going through today.

At least Miranda understands it could. The Mayor was alone in [expressing that opinion] during the round-table discussion.

“I think that is totally unreal, because it’s not only the pressing of the federal charges, it’s his administrative capacity that is at stake. It’s as simple as going out to the street and asking people to make an evaluation. They will mention [the cost of] water, electricity, tolls, tuition, coffee, food,” Mercado said.

Báez went one step further when suggesting that the Governor resign and dedicate himself to his case. He recalled that the party still has time to change its candidate for Governor.

“Right now, I don’t see the PPD winning either the House or the Senate[, both of which are currently under the control of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP)]. In addition, I believe we’re going to lose some municipalities,” Báez said. “I have pointed out behind closed doors that we should concentrate on winning some races.”

Báez will not run for re-election after 26 years as a PPD legislator. Mercado was Secretary of State under the administration of Sila M. Calderón and engaged in bitter clashes with a wing of the PPD when she nominated him to the Supreme Court, which was opposed by leaders such as Acevedo. Miranda has been a harsh critic of the Governor’s in the past and is one of the persons mentioned to replace him. He is currently in charge of drafting the PPD platform. EL VOCERO invited Alejandro García Padilla, who is candidate for Senator-at-Large and spearheads the straight-ballot campaign, to the round table, but did not show up after confirming he would attend.

Meanwhile, Miranda spoke about the weaknesses in the PNP ballot, particularly Luis Fortuño, its candidate for Governor. He also did not see the federal indictments as a problem. He went further by indicating that the recent interrogations of party leaders by federal agents will rally the members of the PPD on the way to [next] weekend’s party convention.

“The worst is over; having a candidate for Governor indicted. The rest will be perceived by the people as an announcement and a partisan strategy to benefit the other party,” the Caguas Mayor said. “I believe nothing is going to happen before the convention, but if it does, it will generate activism and a much larger effervescence.”

Miranda assured that the PPD is already addressing the need to change through the so-called “Popular Movement” meetings. In addition, it is addressing the status issue, moving more towards autonomy and not the [present] Commonwealth.

“The moment has come to take risks, and sometimes that implies losing an election, and an election is a battle. The war being waged has meaning to a people; it’s when you defend those things that give you validity as a country,” Miranda stated. “What we have proposed in terms of sovereignty is to take our Commonwealth relationship to a level of greater dignity and productivity.”

His round-table colleagues agreed with the need to effect the change the PPD is seeking, but not with the time when it is being undertaken. For example, Báez questioned the search for autonomy taking place within the scenario of the candidate for Governor being indicted on the federal level.

“Proposing sovereignty at this time creates a serious rift in the party base, which I believe is more dangerous than the indictments because it divides the base between the pro-Americans and the anti-Americans,” Báez said. “Since this was brought up in the wake of the federal indictments, many people see it particularly as a defense, and not necessarily as a patriotic or political sentiment.”

“Although I believe the sovereignty message is a message the Popular Democratic Party has to send, the timing is improper, and the messenger is more improper than the timing,” he pointed out.

The PNP has internal problems of its own. Fortuño, though the party’s official candidate for Governor, is facing a grassroots campaign by supporters of former Governor and former party Chairman Pedro Rosselló to elect the latter instead by write-in ballot, thus prompting a schism in the party ranks. Rosselló, who has otherwise maintained he is not running for office in the November elections, is neither encouraging nor discouraging the write-in campaign on his behalf. Local pundits, meanwhile, see the initiative merely as a protest-vote movement against Fortuño and give Rosselló no chance of being elected.

If the write-in campaign catches on and attracts enough PNP voters dissatisfied with Fortuño, and members of the Puerto Rican Independence Party cross party lines and vote in droves for Acevedo as they did in 2004, the indicted Governor might still be re-elected.

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