Puerto Rico Secretary of State David Bernier resigned Sunday, in a step that would allow him to run for governor.
Bernier’s resignation comes after speculation in the legislature that Gov. Alejandro García Padilla would choose not run for reelection and would have Bernier run for the Popular Democratic Party nomination in his place.
In recent months García Padilla has been saying he would run for reelection. In the press release on the resignation, however, the governor said: “One would hope that [Bernier’s] deliberative process convinces him to make himself available to the commonwealth in the electoral arena. He has proven management experience and the temperament, character, capacity, and inclination to work hard that is necessary and that are generally not found among political candidates. David is one of those few who have the capacity to unite the commonwealth.”
García Padilla started his four-year term as governor in January 2013. The members of Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives and Senate will also be up for election in November 2016.
The election of Puerto Rico’s governor, senators and representatives may impact how Puerto Rico’s government handles what has become an increasingly urgent financial crisis. The commonwealth and its municipalities and public corporations owe about $71 billion in debt. On Thursday in his testimony to the United Senate, García Padilla said he expects the commonwealth to default on some bond payments due later this year.
Under Puerto Rico law, candidates for the gubernatorial election scheduled for November 2016 have until December to register their candidacy. Puerto Rico law also says that other than the governor himself, those who register must not have been in leading positions in the government for at least 30 days prior to registering.
If the governor doesn’t run and Bernier runs in the PDP primary election, then others will also run, a Senate source said Thursday. She mentioned Puerto Rico Senate President Eduardo Bhatia Gautier and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz as probable candidates in this scenario.
While in office Bernier has “done nothing,” the Senate source said. “That’s why people love him.” The governor has deliberately kept him apart from the making difficult decisions like increasing taxes, cutting government worker pensions and proposing a 16% value added tax. These decisions along with an economy that remains “very hard” is why many Puerto Ricans dislike the governor, she said.
Bernier has spent most of his career as a dentist. Before becoming secretary of state, Bernier was president of Puerto Rico’s Olympic committee, which organizes an Olympic team separately from that of the United States.
In his role as secretary of state Bernier met with leaders of Caribbean and Latin American nations. In this role he successfully increased Puerto Rico’s trade with these nations, García Padilla said.
U.S. Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi and activist Ricardo Rossell- Neváres are considered likely to run for the 2016 gubernatorial nomination of the New Progressive Party, which is the primary opposition party. Puerto Rico Sen. Thomas Rivera Schatz may also seek the NPP nomination.
