Rosselló’s outreach to voters slim on results
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló came to Kissimmee in January to announce an ambitious plan: a new voter outreach organization that would mobilize millions of Puerto Ricans on the mainland and help them identify candidates who are “friends” of the island.
Seven months later, Poder Puerto Rico, which Rosselló officially unveiled in April, has had no visible impact in Florida — even as voters went to the polls for Tuesday’s primaries.
Local voter outreach groups who said they were once approached to collaborate with Poder say they never received any follow-up. The organization operates entirely online and could not say how many voters have used its website to register to vote.
The group refused to provide documentation proving its status as a tax-exempt social welfare organization. In a statement provided by an attorney for
Poder, board member Luis Figueroa said Poder is “permitted to self-declare its taxexempt status and operate as a 501(c)(4) organization.”
Figueroa, a real estate broker based in Orlando and former regional director for the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration office in Kissimmee, said the organization’s efforts have been focused on getting Puerto Rican voters to turn out for the 2020 elections.
“We won’t have an impact of 100,000 people in three months. That’s unrealistic,” Figueroa told the Orlando Sentinel, adding that through early August, about 2,800 people had been connected to their local supervisors of elections through Poder’s website.
Figueroa said about 600 of those were in Florida, but acknowledged Poder could not say for sure how many of those people had actually registered to vote.
Figueroa said he was one of three board members, along with Texas-based immigration lawyer Erinaldy Agosto. He could not provide the full name of Poder’s third board member.
“There are many, many organizations that are doing the work on the ground. All those organizations are on the ground because they have the funds for that,” Figueroa said. He said Poder was being funded by independent donors but would not give any details on how much money has been raised or how it has been used.
Rosselló’s announcement at a Jan. 12 town hall in Kissimmee got local and national attention. He vowed to unify diaspora communities in several states for November’s midterm elections, following a model inspired by the Cuban-American diaspora.
Rosselló’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The timing of that public appearance in Central Florida, where tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans are estimated to have relocated after the catastrophic Hurricane Maria, also came about a month after the U.S. Congress passed a federal tax bill that Rosselló opposed.
It included a provision imposing 12.5 percent income tax on patents and licenses from foreign companies operating on the island, potentially endangering Puerto Rico manufacturing jobs because companies based there were previously exempt from federal taxes.
In December, Rosselló, a Democrat, told the Miami Herald he was “very disappointed” with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio in particular for voting in favor of the tax bill. He vowed to “make an evaluation” of which Florida candidates were Puerto Rico’s true friends.
“Many of them stood on a podium just like this, looked at a camera just like that and said that they were going to be there to support the people of Puerto Rico,” Rosselló said at his town hall meeting in January. “… Many of them turned their back on Puerto Rico and not only forgot about us, but made things increasingly worse.”
The nonpartisan Poder was officially rolled out in April. With two months until the 2018 general elections in Florida, it has yet to identify any candidates as friends or foes of Puerto Rico or provide a guide on issues relevant to the island.
Rosselló said at the time he would be making endorsements independently of the organization. On Aug. 18, 10 days before the primary, he endorsed incumbent U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, in his race against Alan Grayson.
Last month, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz endorsed Soto and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., in their congressional races during a trip to Central Florida. She also endorsed former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine as the Democratic candidate for Florida governor.
Cruz said in an interview last month that she thinks supporting established grassroots groups is more valuable than “creating an organization to take a space that’s already taken.”
Cruz also rejected a nonpartisan approach to mainland politics.
“It’s a time to take positions,” she said. “You can’t be on both sides.”
A supporter of Puerto Rican sovereignty who is part of the island’s pro-Commonwealth party, Cruz would not rule out running run against Rosselló in 2020, saying her name would be on the ballot — and not for her current office or a seat in the island’s legislature.
Jimmy Torres Velez, an organizer with voter outreach group Boricua Vota, was among those who said he had not been included in Poder’s efforts in Florida.
He said the organization has not been missed.
“We’re building a project that has to be built to help Puerto Rico and help the people who are living in Puerto Rico,” Torres Velez said. “No one can do what we’re doing better than us.”