Puerto Rico status referendum - June 11

[Figueira]

Just to be clear: why did they remove the status quo option from the ballot?

I believe it's to maximize the number of people who vote for statehood, since independence is very unpopular.

[Figueira]

I'd support Puerto Rico-VI, DC, and combined Pacific state. If the Republicans want the State of Jefferson, Florida Panhandle, or upstate New York, that would be fine too.

Upstate New York would be a swing state.

Anyway, regarding the "we don't want to make the Senate even more imbalanced" argument against DC statehood, I think it's only fair that if we're going to give several unpopulated arbitrary swaths of the West (and Vermont) two Senate seats each, we might as well give it to an urban area in the East as well. I would obviously prefer abolishing the Senate entirely, but that unfortunately isn't happening.

[Figueira]

DC should not be a state. Give its population to Maryland or something, but cities should not be entire states.

You know, there are good arguments to be made about why D.C. should not be a state, but this incredibly arbitrary reason is not one of them. Why does the population density of a certain area disqualify it from being a state?

It's not population density, it's the lack of balance between regions and interests. Every state in the country has cities and rural areas; even New Jersey, the densest state, has rural areas. Creating a city-state seems in contradiction to everything the term "state" has historically meant in the US.

But DC has a history of being a separate entity, and the people there want to be a state. Vermont doesn't really have cities (I don't think Burlington counts).

[Figueira]

I mean, I guess statehood will get the majority. Republicans will not allow it to happen  because they don't want 2 dem senate seats. And when the democratic party controls the trifecta again, both DC and Puerto Rico become respectively 51th and 52th states.

Yup, I would hope that the Democrats pass a rule that filibustering doesn't apply to the admission of new states.

If/when Democrats get a trifecta I will be very, very upset if DC statehood and (assuming it passes the referendum) Puerto Rican statehood don't happen.

[Figueira]

23rd Amendment has to be repealed - otherwise, that rump federal district ALSO gets 3 electoral votes.

I don't see a problem with that. It can always be legislated in some way to allocate those EVs to whichever party wins the popular vote. While it should be repealed if DC were made a state, I don't think it should hold up the process.

Basically.

Since the federal government controls the federal district, I think they can make a law about what happens to those EVs (e.g. they go to the popular vote winner, or the winner of all the other electoral votes, or they get ignored entirely, or whatever).

@Kamala, the Republicans would be mostly irrelevant in this scenario since the Democrats would need to have a trifecta to pass DC statehood in the first place.

[Figueira]

23rd Amendment has to be repealed - otherwise, that rump federal district ALSO gets 3 electoral votes.

I don't see a problem with that. It can always be legislated in some way to allocate those EVs to whichever party wins the popular vote. While it should be repealed if DC were made a state, I don't think it should hold up the process.

Basically.

Since the federal government controls the federal district, I think they can make a law about what happens to those EVs (e.g. they go to the popular vote winner, or the winner of all the other electoral votes, or they get ignored entirely, or whatever).

@Kamala, the Republicans would be mostly irrelevant in this scenario since the Democrats would need to have a trifecta to pass DC statehood in the first place.

Yes and no with strings. If DC ever becomes a state it would have its 3 electoral votes, 1 at-large rep and 2 senators but here's the kicker: Congress would still be within a new Federal Zone. The "district" of old would just encompass the trifecta of the Capital, WH, SCOTUS (maybe some other admin buildings). This has been talked about in the past.

Yes, that's what we were just saying.

[Figueira]

As far as DC statehood goes, it is constitutionally mandated that there must be a federal district for the federal government, which of course could be reduced in size as proposed here.

However, this rump district of a few buildings would still be entitled to three electoral votes per the 23rd Amendment which would be a rather ludicrous situation.

That has already heen mentioned in this thread twice.

While you would need a constitutional amendment to get rid of those votes entirely, I think you could simply make legislation to decide what actually happens to them.

[Figueira]

Congress could, theoretically, allow for an alternative method to select electors, just as each state can choose their electors as they please, but short of repealing the amendment there is no way of getting around the fact that the District would continue to have them.

That's literally what I just said.

[Figueira]

What would be the path to house/senate majorities for a Puerto Rico statehood bill?

If I had to guess in the senate:
Democrats, party line
Rubio
Collins
McCain

For the House, I think it's Democrats, party line + maaaaaybe 3 South Florida Republicans (IRL, Curbelo, Diaz-Balerat)

Don Young, interestingly, has already endorsed statehood.

[Figueira]

Well, this is obviously DOA in Congress, which is sad, since Puerto Ricans are Americans, and yet many members of Congress can easily just ignore that because... reasons.

The goal should be to make this as big a political issue as possible. If it's really DOA (which I'm not entirely convinced it is) we need to make it clear how racist the Republicans are being.

[Figueira]

Well, this is obviously DOA in Congress, which is sad, since Puerto Ricans are Americans, and yet many members of Congress can easily just ignore that because... reasons.

The goal should be to make this as big a political issue as possible. If it's really DOA (which I'm not entirely convinced it is) we need to make it clear how racist the Republicans are being.

As well as the disgustingly racist 77% of Puerto Rican voters who did not vote for statehood.  They must be exposed.

1. They didn't vote against statehood--they just didn't vote.
2. That's a different issue altogether. The people of Puerto Rico have made a decision, and Republicans should follow their party's platform and honor that decision.