Writes David Martin:

The two dominant political parties in Puerto Rico are the Popular Democratic Party and the New Progressive Party.  They are completely defined by their positions on the island’s political status, the former for a continuation of the current status (in one form or another), the latter for U.S. statehood.  The national Democratic and Republican parties are little more than an afterthought.  Statehooders, generally, are more active in U.S. political parties.  They make up 100% of Republicans and a pretty good percentage of those who call themselves Democrats on the island.

Traditionally, the way a U.S. candidate for the Republican nomination wins the Puerto Rico delegates to the convention is to call for Puerto Rico statehood more enthusiastically and convincingly than his rivals do.  Mitt Romney said he favored making Puerto Rico a state if 50% plus one person voted for it on the island.

This time it was Rubio who led the pack.  It’s not easy for people up here to learn that, though.  Google “Rubio supports Puerto Rico statehood” and you don’t get anything timely from our mainstream press.  Do it in Spanish, “Rubio apoya la estatidad para Puerto Rico,” and it is a horse of a different color.  You find, for instance, Univision reporting his meeting last September in a restaurant in the Condado section of San Juan with potential donors while carrying a strong pro-statehood message.:

“El estatus de Puerto Rico está impidiendo el crecimiento económico, porque compañías y profesionales se confunden”, al tiempo que “no beneficia a nadie, ni a Washington ni a la isla”, dijo ante decenas de simpatizantes en un restaurante del popular barrio de Santurce, en San Juan.

“The status of Puerto Rico is impeding its economic growth because companies and professional people are confused by it.  It doesn’t benefit anyone, either Washington or the island,” he told tens of sympathizers in a restaurant in the popular neighborhood of Santurce in San Juan.

Ted Cruz issued a somewhat less resounding pro-statehood statement, but that’s about it as far as the other candidates go.

My own position is independence, of course.

UPDATE from David Martin:

Puerto Ricans aren’t exactly natural lovers of Cubans.  Had Kasich, say, taken as strong a position for statehood for PR as Romney did last time he would have actually outflanked Rubio and could have won the primary in PR. that is, if he had been willing to sell out that way, whatever language he did it in.  I worked for the government of Puerto Rico for almost 20 years, four in San Juan and the remainder of the time in Washington and I fancy that I know a thing or two about the subject.  I heard some good jokes about Cubans when I lived in San Juan.