Rosselló steps down as Puerto Rico’s governor
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Ricardo Rosselló stepped down as Puerto Rico’s governor on Friday and announced that Pedro Pierluisi would be sworn in as his successor, almost certainly ensuring that the island’s future leadership will be contested in court.
Rosselló waited until the minute his resignation became effective at 5 p.m. to say that it would be Pierluisi, the recently appointed secretary of state, who would take the oath of office.
The House of Representatives confirmed Pierluisi as secretary of state only an hour before Rosselló’s exit. But the Senate has yet to take up his nomination — leaving the legality of the appointment unclear — and at least one senator has said he intends to challenge Pierluisi’s ascent to the governor’s seat before Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court.
Under Puerto Rico’s Constitution, the secretary of state is supposed to take over when the governor steps down. Rosselló nominated Pierluisi, the island’s former nonvoting representative in Congress, to the position only on Wednesday. The House confirmation helped advance his position as successor.
But before 5 p.m., it was unclear if he would become governor — or whether the job would go to the next in line under the constitution, Wanda Vázquez, the secretary of justice.
Vázquez had said she has no interest in the governor’s position but would fulfill her constitutional duties as needed.
Police in riot gear filed into La Fortaleza, the governor’s official residence in San Juan, the capital, shortly before Pierluisi’s hearing concluded. When news of Pierluisi’s House confirmation reached protesters waving flags outside, they chanted, “¡No lo queremos!” — we don’t want him.
At least one lawmaker, Sen. Eduardo Bhatia of the opposition Popular Democratic Party, said he was preparing a legal challenge if Pierluisi were sworn in.
“This is kindergarten in terms of leadership,” Bhatia said. “There is no way in hell someone like him, a secretary of state, can become governor unless he has been approved by both chambers.”
Carlos Méndez Núñez, the House speaker and a leader of the ruling New Progressive Party, said before the confirmation hearing that no matter the outcome, the governorship should go to Vázquez when Rosselló leaves office because Pierluisi has not been confirmed as secretary of state by the Senate.
In the House, it seemed unlikely at first that Pierluisi could overcome concerns from within the ranks of the New Progressives, who support statehood for Puerto Rico, about his potential conflicts of interest.
Until earlier this week, Pierluisi worked as a lawyer in private practice for a firm that was hired by the unpopular federal oversight board that manages Puerto Rico’s finances. The oversight board has repeatedly clashed with the Legislative Assembly over the imposition of austerity measures.
Pierluisi’s brother-in-law, José Carrión III, is the board’s chairman, though Pierluisi is in the middle of divorcing, according to Puerto Rico news reports.
But Pierluisi argued that his extensive knowledge of Promesa, the bankruptcy law that Congress wrote to create the board, as well as his contacts on the board and on Capitol Hill, made him more qualified to serve as governor.
“Who better than me to advocate for our people before the board?” Pierluisi said. “Who better than me to lead the process for the board to leave? That’s what we all want.”
Pierluisi received the minimum 26 votes needed for confirmation, winning support despite the ‘No’ vote from Méndez Núñez. He also faces strong opposition from Thomas Rivera Schatz, the powerful Senate president who wants to run for governor himself next year. Rivera Schatz, who has said that Pierluisi does not have the votes to be confirmed in the Senate, said the upper chamber will vote on Wednesday.
Before serving eight years as the nonvoting resident commissioner in Congress, Pierluisi was Puerto Rico’s secretary of justice. He is a Democrat when it comes to national politics, though political parties on the island do not neatly match up with those on the mainland.