Roberto Prats | |
---|---|
Member of the Puerto Rico Senate from the At-large district | |
In office 2000–2004 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 1966 (age 57–58) San Juan, Puerto Rico |
Political party | Popular Democratic Democratic |
Alma mater | Cornell University (BA) Interamerican University of Puerto Rico School of Law (JD) |
Occupation | Politician, Attorney |
Roberto Prats Palerm (born 1966) is a former Senator of Puerto Rico, a lawyer, and a former candidate for Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in the elections of 2004. He is affiliated and a member of the Governing Board of the Popular Democratic Party and chairman of the Democratic Party (United States) in Puerto Rico.
Prats received his bachelor's degree in policy analysis and management from Cornell University in 1990. He received his Juris Doctor degree from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico School of Law.
Prats began working in his early twenties with the Government of Puerto Rico. He worked closely with Sila M. Calderón, then Mayor of San Juan, being the city's Public Affairs and Federal Relations Advisor.
In the 2000 elections, Prats was elected as an at-large Senator, becoming the youngest at-large member that year of the Puerto Rican Senate. During his tenure, Prats pushed legislation that sought to help low-income families, environmental statutes and transportation legislation, and was considered a consensus-builder.
In 2003, Sila M. Calderón announced she would not seek a second term as governor. The resident commissioner of Puerto Rico, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, was chosen to run for governor in the elections of 2004. Senator Roberto Prats became the Popular Democratic Party's nominee for resident commissioner for the upcoming elections, which he lost to Luis Fortuño, despite a big boost for his congressional campaign, when the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Terry McAuliffe endorsed him in March 2004. He subsequently was elected state chair of the Democratic Party in Puerto Rico, a position he currently holds, under DNC chairmen Howard Dean, with whom he also has a close relationship, Tim Kaine, the former governor of Virginia, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Donna Brazile. In the summer of 2016, he was elected to a fourth term as state chair.
One of Puerto Rico's "superdelegates", Prats announced his support in January 2008 of Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential bid and served, along with then-Puerto Rico Senate President Kenneth McClintock, as co-chair of her Hispanic Leadership Council, in spite of his former running mate's (Gov. Acevedo Vilá's) endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama. Prats and McClintock also co-chaired Clinton's successful June 1, 2008 primary campaign in the U.S. territory. Both once again were her top spokespersons in Puerto Rico for the June 5, 2016 Puerto Rico primary, which she also won by over 60% of the vote.
In 2009, Prats was elected a member of the DNC's executive committee, the highest ranking Puerto Rican within the Democratic National Committee.
In November 2010, he coauthored a book on the 2008 Hillary Clinton campaign in Puerto Rico with McClintock, then Secretary of State.
• Te Quiero Puerto Rico - Primaria Presidencial Demócrata 2008, [1] Co-author with Kenneth McClintock, Aguilar, a subsidiary of Editorial Santillana, First edition in Spanish (200pp), 2010, ISBN 978-1-60484-744-4
The politics of Puerto Rico take place in the framework of a democratic republic form of government that is under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United States Congress as an organized unincorporated territory. Since the 1898 invasion of Puerto Rico by the United States during the Spanish–American War, politics in Puerto Rico have been significantly shaped by its status as territory of the United States. The nature of Puerto Rico's political relationship with the United States is the subject of ongoing debate in Puerto Rico, in the United States, the United Nations and the international community, with all major political parties in the archipelago calling it a colonial relationship.
Sila María Calderón Serra is a Puerto Rican politician, businesswoman, and philanthropist who was the governor of Puerto Rico from 2001 to 2005. She is the first woman elected to that office. Prior to her term as governor, Calderón held various positions in the government of Puerto Rico, including the 12th Secretary of State of Puerto Rico from 1988 to 1989, and Chief of Staff to Governor Rafael Hernández Colón. She was also mayor of San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, from 1997 to 2001.
Pedro Juan Rosselló González is a Puerto Rican physician and politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001. He was President of the New Progressive Party from 1991 to 1999 and 2003 to 2008, and served as Senator for the District of Arecibo from 2005 to 2008. His son, Ricardo, was also Governor of Puerto Rico from 2017 to 2019.
The New Progressive Party is a political party in Puerto Rico that advocates for statehood. The PNP is one of the two major parties in Puerto Rico with significant political strength and currently holds both the seat of the governor and of the resident commissioner.
General elections were held in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. After a count by the State Commission of Elections, the winner was inaugurated to a four-year term as Governor of Puerto Rico on January 2, 2005.
Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, from 2009 to 2013.
David Enrique "Quique" Bernier Rivera is a Puerto Rican dentist and politician that has served in various roles in public service in Puerto Rico. Bernier first served as executive director of the Office of Youth Affairs of Puerto Rico and was later confirmed as the youngest Secretary of Sports and Recreation of Puerto Rico in history. Four years later, he was unanimously confirmed as Secretary of State of Puerto Rico for the administration of Alejandro García Padilla. He was the 2016 candidate for Governor of Puerto Rico of the Popular Democratic Party.
Kenneth Davison McClintock-Hernández is a politician who served as the twenty-second Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, one of the four longest serving in that post. McClintock served as co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s National Hispanic Leadership Council in 2008, he co-chaired her successful Puerto Rico primary campaign that year and served as the Thirteenth President of the Senate of Puerto Rico until December 31, 2008. He chaired Luis Fortuño’s Incoming Committee on Government Transition in 2008 and the Outgoing Committee on Government Transition in 2012, the first Puerto Rican to serve in both capacities. He was sworn into office as secretary of state on January 2, 2009, by Chief Justice Federico Hernández Denton, fulfilling the role of lieutenant governor in the islands. He was appointed by Governor Pedro Pierluisi as a member of the Civil Rights Commission on February 8, 2024, a nomination pending Senate confirmation.
Norma E. Burgos Andújar is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the Lieutenant Governor and the 16th Secretary of State under Governor Pedro Rosselló from 1995 to 1999. She also served as a member of the Senate of Puerto Rico from 2000 to 2012.
General elections were held in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, to elect the officials of the government that would serve for the next four years, most notably the Governor of Puerto Rico.
Francisco J. Domenech is a former director of the Office of Legislative Services of Puerto Rico (2005–2008), a lawyer, and a professional political campaign manager. Domenech spent part of his childhood and adolescent years, in Ocala, Florida, having attended Blessed Trinity Catholic School, and Forest High School.
Eduardo Bhatia Gautier is a Puerto Rican attorney and politician. Bhatia is a former 15th President of the Senate of Puerto Rico and executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration.
José Luis Dalmau Santiago is an attorney and politician. He is the current president of the Senate of Puerto Rico.
The 2008 Puerto Rico Democratic presidential primary took place on June 1, 2008. It was an open primary. Puerto Rico initially planned to hold caucuses, as was done in 2000 and 2004, on June 7, 2008. In December 2007, an error in the plan was discovered; the caucus date should have read June 1, 2008. Puerto Rico also decided to conduct a primary, rather than caucuses. Puerto Rico sent 55 pledged delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. These delegates were allotted on a proportional basis. The territory's delegation also included eight unpledged "superdelegates". Puerto Rico also selected one unpledged add-on delegate. Selection of the unpledged add-on delegate occurred at the Assembly of the Democratic Party of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico on June 21, 2008, in San Juan. Polls were open from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm, prevailing local time, Atlantic Standard Time (AST). Hillary Clinton won the primary.
Aníbal Salvador Acevedo Vilá is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2005 to 2009.
The Popular Democratic Party is a political party in Puerto Rico that advocates to continue as a Commonwealth of the United States with self-governance. The party was founded in 1938 by dissidents from the Puerto Rican Liberal Party and the Unionist Party and originally promoted policies on the centre-left. In recent years, however, its leaders have described the party as centrist.
The Young Democrats of America Puerto Rico Chapter is a non-profit political corporation organized pursuant to General Corporate Law of Puerto Rico and duly registered in the Department of State of Puerto Rico.
The 2008 New Progressive Party primaries were the primary elections by which voters of the New Progressive Party (PNP) chose its nominees for various political offices of Puerto Rico, namely the position of governor, for the 2008 general elections. Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño was selected as the nominee at the primary elections held on March 9, 2008. He would go on to win the 2008 general election as well.
Jorge Colberg Toro is a Puerto Rican politician. He served as a member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives from 2003 to 2013. He also was Secretary for Public Affairs for Governors Sila M. Calderon and Alejandro García Padilla and Secretary General of the Popular Democratic Party (PDP). He is a government and public Policy College Professor at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, a political, legislative and government consultant, speechwriter and a television and radio political analyst.
José La Luz is a labor activist and intellectual who organizes, promotes and advocates for worker rights in Puerto Rico and the United States. He was the architect of the grassroots campaign that resulted in the 1998 passage of Puerto Rico's Law 45, which granted bargaining rights and allowed for the unionization of over 120,000 public employees. La Luz was the Associate Director of the Leadership Academy for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees until his retirement in 2014. La Luz also served on the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America