- Kenneth McClintock
Infobox_Congressman
name = Kenneth D. McClintock
caption= |
order1=13th
office1=President of the Senate of Puerto Rico
term_start2=January 10, 2005
term_end2=2008
predecessor2=Antonio Fas Alzamora
successor2=Incumbent
date of birth = birth date and age|1957|01|19
place of birth =London ,England
death_date =
death_place =
state =
district =
party = New Progressive Party
Democratic Party
spouse =Maria Elena Batista
Kenneth D. McClintock-Hernández (born
January 19 ,1957 ) is a politician inPuerto Rico of Puerto Rican andIrish-American descent. He served as co-chair ofHillary Clinton presidential campaign's National Hispanic Leadership Council in 2008, co-chaired Clinton's successful Puerto Rico primary campaign that year and remains as the current President of theSenate of Puerto Rico until his term ends onDecember 31 ,2008 .Early life
Kenneth Davison McClintock-Hernández was born in
London ,England onJanuary 19 ,1957 while his father, George D. McClintock (1925-2001), an architect born inTexas City ,Texas , was working for theUnited States Air Force . His mother, Nívea M. Hernández (1931-2000), born in Puerto Rico, was a university professor and a member of theBoard of Trustees of theUniversity of Puerto Rico . McClintock, along with his brother Steven George McClintock and his sister Elaine M. Montgomery were raised and educated in Puerto Rico.He graduated from University High School (UHS) in
Río Piedras, Puerto Rico in 1974, where he served as student council president, studied at theUniversity of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras School of Business Administration, and in 1980 obtained his "Juris Doctor" degree fromTulane University in New Orleans,Louisiana . While in college, McClintock, along with Puerto Rico's current congressional delegateLuis Fortuño , founded thePuerto Rico Statehood Students Association , student organization that contributed in the elections victory ofCarlos Romero Barceló in 1980. [http://www.prssa.we.bs/history.html PRSSA History] McClintock never took the bar, neither in Louisiana nor Puerto Rico, as his intention was not to be a practicing attorney, but a public servant. He began that public service career, before law school, as the staff director for thePuerto Rico House of Representatives Consumer Affairs Committee. He subsequently served as a legislative assistant to the NPP House delegation, under delegation leaders Jose Granados Navedo, who over a decade later pleaded guilty to various violations of federal laws, the lateAngel Viera Martinez andEdison Misla Aldarondo , convicted many years later of federal and state law violations. He also served as an aide to then Senator and current mayor of GuaynaboHector O'Neill .McClintock has spent almost all of his adult life working, first as a full-time staffer and subsequently as a legislator, in the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly. While in college, he was an
Amway independent distributor, learning the ropes of running a small private business and earning enough money to support himself. His critics contend that this background has given him tunnel vision, which prohibits him from seeing the big picture when it comes to the myriad problems that affect the Island. Supporters, however, suggest that his wide participation in Puerto Rico's religious life, community activities and continued contact with students in schools and universities, as well as his weekly radio programs in Spanish and English over the years (his WOSO Radio Speakout weekly program has been hosted by him for over eightnine years) has kept him accessible and in contact with ordinary people's concerns.He has been married since
July 16 ,1994 toMaria Elena Batista , director of Sports and Recreation for the municipality of San Juan and a former Olympic swimmer. The McClintock-Batista family have a son, Kevin Davison, born in 1995, and a daughter, Stephanie Marie, born in 1997. They live in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is an active member of theEpiscopal Church in the United States of America 's Diocese of Puerto Rico and serves as a delegate to its Diocesan Convention.Political career
Early years
McClintock has, since his teenage years, been involved in politics in one way or another. At the age of 14, McClintock was appointed by President
Richard Nixon as delegate to theWhite House Conference on Youth held from April 18-21, 1971. In 1978, PresidentJimmy Carter appointed him to theNational Advisory Committee for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention . In 1979 McClintock served as the firstPuerto Rico Statehood Students Association President.1980s
In 1984, the
Jaycees recognized his achievements by bestowing on him the Outstanding Young Man of the Year in Journalism Award for his weekly columns in the "El Mundo " daily newspaper.He was the
Executive Director of theU.S. Democratic Party , chapter of Puerto Rico, from 1984 to 1988 and has attended all nine Democratic Party conventions since 1976 as adelegate , asuperdelegate or as a staffer. As a Democratic National Committeeman, he was recently elected to attend his tenth consecutive convention in 2012. Current DNC ChairHoward Dean appointed McClintock to the DNC Credentials Committee for the 2005-2008 term.1990s
He was a Municipal Councilman for San Juan from 1990 to 1992 and during his tenure was the author of the municipal ordinance that raised the salaries of Municipal Guards beyond $1,000 USD a month for the first time in
Puerto Rican history .In 1992, he was elected the youngest
Senator-at-Large for the 12th Legislature. In November 1996 he was the top vote getter among all New Progressive and Popular Democratic parties senatorial candidates. He was reelected to his fourth term in 2004, nominated by his New Progressive Party caucus as Senate President onNovember 4 ,2004 and formally elected and sworn in for a four-year term as the Senate's 13th President onJanuary 10 ,2005 .In 1996, President
Bill Clinton appointed McClintock as an at large member of theDemocratic Platform Committee , where he was instrumental in drafting the platform plank on Puerto Rico.In 2007, he was appointed a co-chair of Hillary Clinton's Hispanic Leadership Council, and, along with
Roberto Prats , co-chaired Sen. Clinton's successful campaign for Puerto Rico'sJune 1 ,2008 presidential primary, which she won 68% to 32%, the second highest vote margin (after West Virginia) in the 2008 Democratic election cycle.During 1999, he served as the 62nd Chairman of the
Council of State Governments , the youngest and firstHispanic in that organization's 75-year history. During his terms in CSG leadership, the organization strengthened its international ties, admitting several Canadian provinces as international member jurisdictions, co-sponsoring the foundation of theParliamentary Conference of the Americas , and co-chairing with CSG President and then Wisconsin GovernorTommy Thompson a mission to thePeople's Republic of China . As Chairman, McClintock increased the presence of Hispanics in CSG committees and task forces and helped organize CSG's best attended Annual Meeting ever, held inQuebec City ,Canada . He has authored over 1,000 legislative measures during his over 15 years in the State Legislature, of which over 190 have already become law.He served as the second President of the
Parliamentary Conference of the Americas from 1999 to 2000, a forum that brings together the parliamentary assemblies of the unitary, federal and federated states, regional parliaments and interparliamentary organizations of the Americas. The Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico hosted the General Assembly of COPA in July 2000. He currently serves on the Governing Board of theCouncil of State Governments , the Executive Committee of theNational Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators , the Executive Committee of the Parliamentary Conference of the Americas, the Board of Directors ofThe Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars , a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization and serves as a director of theState Legislative Leaders Foundation , based inCenterville, Massachusetts .2000s
Prior to his election as Senate President, he served as Senate Minority Leader from 2001 to 2004 and he chaired the most important committee of the Senate of Puerto Rico: the Committee on Government and Federal Affairs, as well as the Joint Committee for the
Córdova-Fernós Congressional Internships Program from 1993 to 2000.The Senate Committees he chaired filed reports that have served as the ground to make radical changes in public policy. The report on the conditions of the companies availed to the tax benefits of the now-defunct Section 936 of the
Federal Internal Revenue Code earned for him an interview in ABC's Prime Time Live program and Univision Network. He has testified in diverse hearings of the Congressional Committees, and has been the guest speaker in several universities throughout the United States. He has been interviewed in ABC's "Good Morning America ", has debated onFox News Network and has appeared onBBC news programs, as well as onC-SPAN 's "Washington Journal".His efforts to promote economic equality to Puerto Rico's consumers by stateside corporations were profiled in a
Business Week article in 1998. In 1996, he was appointed by GovernorPedro Rosselló as co-chair of the New Progressive Party's Platform Committee, a position to which he was reappointed by the New Progressive Party’s 2000 gubernatorial candidateCarlos I. Pesquera .In 2004, he chaired the
New Progressive Party 's Senate Campaign Committee and flipped his party's 9-member minority, of which he served as Minority Leader from 2001 to 2004, into an impressive nearly two-thirds majority in the new Senate in 2005, even though the NPP gubernatorial candidate narrowly lost the election.Election as President of the Senate
Since
January 10 ,2005 , Senator McClintock has presided over theSenate of Puerto Rico . His presidency was in jeopardy during most of that year, as former Governor Pedro Rosselló was sworn in as a member of the Senate onFebruary 13 ,2005 and sought the Presidency for the remainder of the term. McClintock was elected to the Puerto Rico Senate Presidency with 23 votes, including 14 of the 17 NPP senators (Sen. McClintock abstained, one seat was vacant and Sen.Norma Burgos abstained in protest for the manner in which the NPP caucus allegedly elected the Senate leadership), and the entire 9-member minority delegation of the Popular Democratic Party, while the Puerto Rico Independence Party senator followed party tradition in abstaining from leadership votes).Since 2001, Senate rules require a unanimous vote to change the presidency. During his Presidency, he has backed many nominations and many public policy positions of Governor
Aníbal Acevedo-Vilá . Some nominations have failed to obtain the Senate's consent, two through rejection, others through inaction or withdrawal by the Governor following the Senate president's "advice" to do so. He was instrumental in breaking the logjam that led to the end of a two-week long government shutdown in May, 2006. For close to three years, of the seventeen senators that were elected under the New Progressive Party in the 2004 General Elections, six remained loyal to McClinctock's presidency, thus denying his opponents the unanimity required by Senate Rules II and VI to declare the presidency vacant. As McClintock stripped eight of the ten senators who supported Rosselló's claim for the Presidency of the chairmanships of Senate committees, leaving a total of ten committees under the leadership of the five NPP senators who still backed him and two, the Ethics and the Public Safety committees under the leadership of senators supporting Rosselló. Many Capitol insiders had claimed that this has had the effect of overflowing committees with work and slowing down the process of bills becoming laws. However, when that issue was raised on the floor of the Senate, McClintock ordered an investigation on legislative productivity that statistically demonstrated that committee output was higher during the third legislative session (after committee and chairmanship consolidations) than during the first.One senator who supports him and came to the NPP expelled in the past term from the PDP, Senate Majority Leader
Jorge De Castro Font was expelled from the New Progressive Party for supposedly being the brain behind McClintock's strategies to remain Senate President. This sanction was endorsed in a Party state assembly in 2005, for allegedly insulting high officials of the NPP (including its president, Pedro Rosselló), rejecting to comply with majority decisions of the party's state assembly (including support for Rossello's Senate presidency bid), and allegedly making political alliances with the PDP delegation in the Senate. Senator McClintock and four of the other senators who supported him were relieved of party positions for the same reasons.The party's directorate recommended expelling Sen. McClintock as well as Senate Vice President
Orlando Parga onFebruary 13 ,2006 . OnAugust 20 ,2006 , however, the party's General Assembly failed to ratify their expulsion, approving instead a generic censure, reflecting the discomfort that the proposed expulsion created among many party members. As a result of his refusal to yield his leadership position in the Senate, he is seen without any political future by those who supported Sen. Rossello's bid, including a number of NPP voters who also supported Rossello.On
January 16 ,2007 the NPP Senate Caucus imposed disciplinary sanctions on two more NPP senators,José Emilio González , Rosselló's fellow senator from the Arecibo district, andCarmelo Ríos of the Bayamón district. The two were the decisive votes to pass a Concurrent Resolution proposing a constitutional amendment that would turn Puerto Rico's bicameral legislature in a unicameral system, an issue not addressed by the party's platform. At the present time, the caucus has disciplined eight of the 16 members elected to the Senate in 2004.Members of the NPP hardcore rank and file have clearly stated they would never forgive the negotiations they allege have taken place against the statehood movement by McClintock, and do not acknowledge the Senate President's extensive efforts to lobby in Congress and generate national media coverage for the enactment of legislation to provide self-determination for Puerto Rico, as proposed by a
White House Task Force on Puerto Rico's Political Status . Likewise, many political observers, including a number of NPP voters who oppose Rosselló, believe that McClintock's and Parga's removal from party membership rolls will be insignificant within the NPP; since both depended upon the rank and file structure to get elected with the party, while other observers and party leaders have expressed concern that the removals imperil future party victories, by the alienation of tens of thousands of past party supporters. Many party members, however, consider McClintock and his supporters as traitors. OnFebruary 23 ,2007 , McClintock announced that if the party disciplinary sanctions are not lifted "within a reasonable time" he will file suit to protect "not only the constitutional rights of the senators who have been sanctioned but the rights of party members to freely select the candidates of their choice in the March 2008 primary". That "reasonable time" ended onMarch 29 ,2007 when he, along with four other senators, filed suit in San Juan Superior Court, claiming that NPP leaders violated the due process required by the state elections laws when parties attempt to discipline its members. After a day-long hearing, Judge Oscar Davila Suliveres ruled onApril 12 against NPP SecretaryThomas Rivera Schatz and determined the lawsuit is meritorious and will be decided on the merits within several days. All sanctions against the McClintock Six were nullified by San Juan Superior Court Judge Oscar Dávila Suliveres onMay 8 ,2007 , who determined that they had broken no programmatic or rule-based accord, and that they are free to run in the NPP's 2008 primary. OnMay 11 , the Court reiterated, in a Nunc Pro Tunc Order, that any attempt by party officials to deny the rights of the McClintock Six would nullify the party primary. The Puerto Rico Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's ruling onJune 12 ,2007 [http://www.lexjuris.com/lexjuris/tspr2007/lexj2007121.htm] , declaring all sanctions against the senators null and void.On
December 27 ,2007 , theSupreme Court of Puerto Rico denied the New Progressive Party's attempt to deny McClintock's senatorial allies the opportunity to appear on the 2008 NPP primary ballot. In a 4-1 decision, the Court reaffirmed McClintock's right to remain as Senate President unless he voluntarily resigns, dies, or is removed as a member of the Senate.A 2007 "
El Nuevo Día " opinion poll reflected that, in spite of being censured by the New Progressive Party, he has become its third most popular leader, after Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño and party president Pedro Rosselló, surpassing San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini, former gubernatorial candidate Carlos Pesquera and Bayamón Mayor Ramón Luis Rivera. An even more recent poll published onDecember 21 ,2006 , commissioned by "Caribbean Business " newspaper andWOSO radio station placed McClintock as the island's third most popular poliical leader, behindResident Commissioner Luis Fortuño and former governorRafael Hernández Colón and well ahead of GovernorAníbal Acevedo Vilá , San Juan mayorJorge Santini and former governorsSila Calderón ,Carlos Romero Barceló andPedro Rosselló , leading some to suggest a Fortuño-McClintock ticket in 2008, which is reported to have the widest support in recent polls. At a recent campaign meeting, the NPP's only declared gubernatorial aspirant,Luis Fortuño confirmed that McClintock leads all takers in all polls for Resident Commissioner by wide margins. Nevertheless, Fortuño chose former Attorney General Pedro Pierluisi as his running mate onMay 18 ,2007 , hours after McClintock announced that he would not run for elective office in 2008.There were several attempts to unify the New Progressive Party delegation in the Senate, but all of them were sabotaged by some Party leaders, such as then-
Secretary General ,Thomas Rivera Schatz and Party Vice-PresidentMiriam Ramírez de Ferrer .Upon
Luis Fortuño 's decisive victory in theMarch 9 ,2008 NPP primaries, McClintock and his (mostly renominated) stalwarts were welcomed back into the party, reinstated to their leadership positions and McClintock appointed five of the eleven former Senate defectors to committee chairmanships.Work as President of the Senate
As Senate President and throughout his legislative career, he has focused on developing external trade opportunities for Puerto Rico-made products. Innumerable ambassadors, including Sir
David Manning , the British ambassador to the United States, have visited his office, and he has met with several world leaders, includingPeople's Republic of China PremierZhu Ronji in 1999,Costa Rica PresidentsJosé María Figueres andOscar Arias Sánchez , Canadian Prime MinisterJean Chrétien ,Panama 's PresidentMartin Torrijos , as well as several U.S. Presidents, includingJimmy Carter ,George H. W. Bush ,Bill Clinton andGeorge W. Bush . He has also championed improving school-level physical and health education, the theme of hisWorld Health Day 2006 address before thePanamerican Health Organization in Washington, DC last April.One of the very few Puerto Rican leaders who is fully bicultural and bilingual, McClintock is the most frequently invited statehooder asked to speak at stateside colleges and universities, such as he did in late 2006 at
Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) andYale University , where he debated Puerto Rico's political status issue. OnDecember 31 he was the only NPP leader to draw attention to the celebration of the 30th Anniversary of recently deceased PresidentGerald Ford 's statement in support of statehood onDecember 31 ,1976 .In September, 2007 he began a media campaign to oust
Panama National Assembly presidentPedro Miguel González Pinzón , who stands accused in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of murdering Puerto Rican-bornU.S. Army Sgt.Zak Hernández , bolstered by the approval by 25 of the 27 members of theSenate of Puerto Rico of a resolution he authored expressing the legislative body's "profound preoccupation" with the Panamanian leader's election. [http://www.senadopr.us/Archivo_Digital/2005-2008/Actas/2007/act0906.07f.pdf]In December 2007, McClintock convened a meeting in
Honolulu, Hawaii of Senate presidents fromAlaska ,Hawaii ,Guam , theNorthern Marianas Islands andPuerto Rico to establish theOutlying Areas Senate Presidents Caucus to discuss issues common to the nation's outlying areas and devise common strategies to deal with such issues. One positive outcome of his efforts isFederal Communications Commission chairmanKevin Martin 's support of the XM/Sirius satellite radio merger after Sirius committed to extending service to Puerto Rico.OnApril 7 ,2008 , McClintock and House Speaker Aponte joined former President Bill Clinton for the unveiling of a statue depicting former PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt . The statue is one of the few depictions of FDR sitting in an undisguised wheelchair. The statue will join those ofTheodore Roosevelt ,Herbert Hoover ,Harry S Truman ,Dwight D. Eisenhower ,John Fitzgerald Kennedy andGerald R. Ford , the six other Presidents who have visited the American territory, , which will unveiled in similar ceremonies during 2008. OnMay 26 , McClintock presided over the yearly Memorial Day ceremony and concert that has become one of the trademarks of his presidency. A special recognition by him and Resident Commissioner Fortuño of Wikipedia editor Antonio Santiago (Tony (The Marine) Santiago) was followed by a keynote address by Sen. Clinton in the presence of her husband and daughter. At the end of the ceremony, the names of several men and women were unveiled on Puerto Rico's Memorial Wall, which honors Puerto Ricans who gave their life in military service. Several of the names on the wall have been placed as a result of Santiago's military history research.A life-long coin collector, McClintock sponsored a resolution, passed in June 2008, that urges the
United States Mint to use an image of theArecibo Observatory in the commemorative Puerto Rico quarter to be issued in March 2009 as part of the50 state quarters program.McClintock's presidency began to draw to a close when on June 30, 2008 he gavelled the Senate out of the seventh and last regular session of the term. He remains as president until December 31, 2008, when he turns over the gavel to Senate Secretary
Manuel A. Torrres , who will serve as Acting President until the fourteenth Senate President is officially elected on January 14, 2009. Among those vying for the position is thePopular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico Senate Minority LeaderJosé Luis Dalmau ,New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico Senate Majority LeaderJorge De Castro Font and NPP senatorial candidateThomas Rivera Schatz .On September 11, 2008, McClintock presided over the first joint meeting of the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly outside the Capitol ever, held at the
Roberto Clemente Coliseum inSan Juan, Puerto Rico , to commemorate the 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks against the United States and present the Military Medal of the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly to those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 1,000 of the 9,000 eligible were present for the ceremony, accompanied by over 1,500 family members.Puerto Rico Independence Party legislators boycotted the event [http://vocero.com/noticia-1568-_homenaje_a_los_soldados.html] .Democratic Presidential Primary in 2008
McClintock, who did not run in the 2008 election cycle, demonstrated his long-lasting political acumen when he joined forced with former PDP senator and Democratic State Chair
Roberto Prats to co-chairHillary Clinton 's campaign in Puerto Rico. In spite of running behind in the delegate count, they engineered a 68% to 32% win for Clinton over eventual Democratic nomineeBarack Obama , Clinton's second largest primary margin (after West Virginia) and the widest victory margin in a candidate competition in Puerto Rico since fabled GovernorLuis Muñoz Marín 's last run for office in 1964. As a result, Clinton dominated Puerto Rico's 63-member delegation by a 43-20 margin.###@@@KEY@@@###
succession box
title=President of the Senate of Puerto Rico
before=Antonio Fas Alzamora
years=2005-2008
after=IncumbentSee also
*List of famous Puerto Ricans - Politicians
References
# [http://www.copa.qc.ca/Anglais/Quisommesang/Structure/Presidence/KMcClintock/biokmcang.html Senator Kenneth D. McClintock, Biographical Notes] . Parliamentary Conference of the Americas. ()
# [http://www.senadopr.us] Rule 6.1 regarding the election and removal of the Senate President
# [http://www.twc.edu] The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars' web site
# [http://endi.com] for recent El Nuevo Día polling data
# [http://prwow.com] forDecember 21 ,2006 Caribbean Business/WOSO Radio poll results
# TheSan Juan Star ,December 26 ,2006 , Viewpoint, for examples of speculation on 2008 ticket
# http://www.endi.com/noticia/portada/noticias/triunfan_los_disidentes/230159
# http://www.lexjuris.com/lexjuris/tspr2007/lexj2007121.htm
# http://www.senadopr.us/Archivo_Digital/2005-2008/Actas/2007/act0906.07f.pdf
# http://www.sllf.org
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