why did hipolito win 4 years ago?

liam1

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Jun 9, 2004
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ok, i understand that the law was: one president - one term, and the leonel could not be eleceted twice, but if the econony was so good during the leonel's first term, didn't leonel, after he had served his term, endorse someone from his party, and why the people didn't support that candidate? maybe the leonel-endorsed candidate was more of an Al Gore type, and hipo had more karma, like Bush? just don't understand why the people didn't support leonel's guy.
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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Karma or charisma? In either case, no.

Leonel's guy was Danilo Medina, who is not the most charismatic of politicians. It is said that Leonel did not back Jaime David Fernandez Mirabal, who would have been far more successful, because of personal rivalries. Who knows.

This was not the only factor, though. Many were disillusioned with some aspects of the PLD rule, there was some corruption and the usual clientilism, although in retrospect it was insignificant compared to what went after.

The PRD also rode in on the wave of sympathy that followed their former leader Pe?a Gomez?s untimely death a couple of years previously.

Balaguer, as ever, played a crucial role in that he did not challenge the result in the first round, which technically could have gone to a second round should he and Danilo Medina stood together and demanded it. The PRSC and PLD conceded defeat, and so the PRD was declared the winner.
 

suarezn

Gold
Feb 3, 2002
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Not to mention that The PRD had been out of power for some 14 years. People tend to forget what their previous government was like and that the same people running for office were the same people who were in power back then.
 

jskr1us

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Apr 29, 2003
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Two reasons corruption in the previous administration (not as great as occured durring this administration) and a movement similar to that currently taking place in many other places in South & Central America where the greater numbers of people in lower class put politicos in power who will socialize the government with out regard to the long term costs(the people do not understand the long term consequences and the government leaders & employees just taking advantage to built up the bank accounts of the politicos involved). - Just my opinion. :glasses:
 

Keith R

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Jan 1, 2002
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Danilo was beloved by long-time PLD insiders, but was not so well-known by the public at large and as Chiri says, was not an exciting campaigner. Jaime David was far better known and recognized (and actually pretty well liked), but many of the PLD faithful did not trust him because he was not originally PLD. And perhaps Chiri is correct, that Leonel worried it would make Jaime David too powerful in the party...

Many in the PRD were determined to see their party win in 2000 regardless of who their candidate was, because they had been out of power so long and because they felt like Balaguer robbed Pe?a Gomez of the win in 1994 through electoral fraud and again in 1996 by throwing PRSC support behind Leonel. I was still living in SD as the campaign 2000 began, and there was much "do it for Pe?a" talk after his death. And Hippo claimed to be Pe?a's chosen successor...

Another factor: Balaguer refused to put his party's support behind the PLD in 2000.

Another factor: PRD & PRSC rank-and-file were not happy that PLD did not "share the spoils" during Leonel's administration. Reformistas particularly seemed angry that they got nothing tangible (i.e., $$$, botella jobs, etc.) as a result of their support for Leonel during the election. Much of the "come solo" talk started because of this.

Another factor: Hippo played heavily on the "I am a man of the people" theme, saying how he talked like them, thought like them, understood them, and arguing that Danilo, like Leonel, was an aloof intellectual that did not connect at all with "real Dominicans." And people thought Hippo's colorful language was just that, colorful language, and not an indication of mental deficiency.

Another factor: Dominicans did not fully appreciate what they had in Leonel at the end of his first term in office. Sure, had missteps, he botched the privatization of CDE, some in his Administration were corrupt, and I still disagree with the hefty pay raise he gave himself as his first action upon taking office, but he did alot of good. The average Dominican did not really appreciate how much good until Hippo destroyed it. As the song says, "Ain't know whatcha got 'til it's gone..."

Another factor: Hippo campaigned hard in rural zones, saying that he was a farmer and understood how agriculture had been hurt by Leonel and he would be their man on the inside, that he understood "the DR outside of Santo Domingo" (as I heard him say in Duverge), whereas that city-slicker Danilo never could...that pitch works in the hinterland.

Another much rumored factor: drug money supporting the PRD campaign.
 
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bienamor

Kansas redneck an proud of it
Apr 23, 2004
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one of his better ideas

Keith R said:
I still disagree with the hefty pay raise he gave himself as his first action upon taking office, but he did alot of good. .

Oh sure would rather have had Balugar's 8000rd per month, and the corruption that went with it give me a break.

What he did was finally give the president of the country ,the vp, and department heads and below a living wage, then told them that they were making enough without the corruption, so stop!

This more or less finally worked down to every one on the goverment payroll. A big part of the police not taking as many bribes, and a lot of the other corruption going either away or at least dropping off. :p
 

Keith R

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Jan 1, 2002
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bienamor said:
Oh sure would rather have had Balugar's 8000rd per month, and the corruption that went with it give me a break.

What he did was finally give the president of the country ,the vp, and department heads and below a living wage, then told them that they were making enough without the corruption, so stop!

This more or less finally worked down to every one on the goverment payroll. A big part of the police not taking as many bribes, and a lot of the other corruption going either away or at least dropping off. :p
bienamor, I never disagreed with giving the top officers a raise -- just the amount and timing of it bothered me. He essentially tried to put the Dominican President's salary on a par with that of the US President (at that time), in country that cannot afford such levels. I also thought it sent a bad signal by raising so much for the top guys as one of his first acts -- making it look like PLD was first and foremost concerned with their own income. I think a series of raises over time might have made more sense.

And yes I heard all the arguments about how it was necessary to pay such levels to the top positions in order to attract the really talented. Frankly, this argument would have held more water if more of the cabinet guys receiving the big bucks actually displayed more talent & dedication...

As for improving the salary or the average working joe, especially among the police, yes, I was in favor of that because I felt it was a necessary step toward making a "no bribe-taking" policy actually stick.

But even the average Dominican understood that the salaries/wages for the average public sector worker did not go up even a fraction of the percentage that the President's & cabinet's salaries did.
 

bienamor

Kansas redneck an proud of it
Apr 23, 2004
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true

Keith R said:
bienamor, I never disagreed with giving the top officers a raise -- just the amount and timing of it bothered me. He essentially tried to put the Dominican President's salary on a par with that of the US President (at that time), in country that cannot afford such levels. I also thought it sent a bad signal by raising so much for the top guys as one of his first acts -- making it look like PLD was first and foremost concerned with their own income. I think a series of raises over time might have made more sense.

And yes I heard all the arguments about how it was necessary to pay such levels to the top positions in order to attract the really talented. Frankly, this argument would have held more water if more of the cabinet guys receiving the big bucks actually displayed more talent & dedication...

As for improving the salary or the average working joe, especially among the police, yes, I was in favor of that because I felt it was a necessary step toward making a "no bribe-taking" policy actually stick.

But even the average Dominican understood that the salaries/wages for the average public sector worker did not go up even a fraction of the percentage that the President's & cabinet's salaries did.

Don't think it was on a par, if I remember it was raised set up at $60k, and the other top positions were around the $50k mark. This was a heck of a lot less than they were making on the side before. The average dominican sector worker did not get that level of increase true, but then again the average gov. worker never does, nothing new. Would have been nice if it had really attracted better talent in some cases, but in most was better than what they replaced at that time.


Will agree the timing maybe have not been the best, but it did need to be done. We had systems analyst's at the time making $25K here in the DR. Was really kind of funny that you could be a systems analyst at CODETEL and make more than the president of the country. Another problem with the timing was that it took about a year to finally work it's self down to lowest level. So maybe they should have went from the bottom up? That would not have stopped the corruption, as the guys on top would have just taken more from the ones at the bottom.
 

Spirit7

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Aug 26, 2004
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Hippo's charisma vs. Medina's lack of it.

I believe one of the major reasons for Hipolito's winning the 2000 election was his charisma vs. the PLD's candidate's, Medina, lack of it. I had the opportunity to meet and listen to both when they visited the La Vega Free Zone and I represented one of the factories. Hipolito was very open, friendly and funny while Medina was cold and very serious. Hipolito looked me in the eye when we met, put his arm around me and was very friendly while Medina did not look me in the eye and gave me a cold handshake. In spite of this, though, I knew Medina was much better prepared than Hipolito and I abstained during those elections. Looking back, I should have voted for Medina and many people, undoubtedly, made this erroneous decision too.

Another important factor we should not forget was, Balaguer, leader of the make-or-break elections PRSC, was disenchanted with the PLD and the support he had given them in 96 to bring them to power and he went with the PRD and Hipolito and that, in reality, was the nail in the coffin for the PLD.
 

samiam

Bronze
Mar 5, 2003
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1. Danilo sucked as candidate. The PLD was portrayed as a greedy party and could not shake this image off. Their campaig was borderline ridiculous. Can any one forget those stupid Danilo hypnosys commercials?

2. The PRD would win no matter what. You could smell it in the air months before the elections. They where more organized and determined than the other two.

3. The PRSC felt cheated out of the 2 spot as got beat by less that 1% and thus eliminated any possibility of support from Balaguer who claimed he would not lend his hat twice to the same people. I think only the PLD was convinced they where going to get support from the Reformists again.