Good morning. Happy hump day to all who celebrate. Enjoy the downward slide into the weekend. Miranda Hobbes Cynthia Nixon is on a hunger strike and demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Because if there’s one thing the government of Israel cares about, it’s the diet of a C-list celebrity on another continent.

A sneak peak of the pixels ahead:

• A Puerto Rican primer

• The British-Greek war for (parts of) the Parthenon

• Two frat bros fighting for their right (to party)

• And much more!

Here’s today’s issue of The Elective:

 PUERTO RICO 

Democrats and Republicans vs. Democrats and Republicans

The fight to lead Puerto Rico is getting crowded. The island has a governor just like the 50 states. And it has party primaries just like the 50 states. And the current governor, a Democrat, is being challenged in the primary by…a Republican?

Some background: The United States gained control of Puerto Rico in 1899 after winning the Spanish-American War. We also got Cuba and the Philippines (but those two didn’t stick).

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. But they can’t vote in presidential elections (unless they move to the mainland). They also don’t pay federal income taxes (but do pay other federal taxes). They don’t get representation in Congress but do send a “resident commissioner” who serves in the House but doesn’t get a vote (since Puerto Rico isn’t a state and she’s not a representative).

Political Parties: Instead of ideology, a single all-important issue divides Puerto Rican political parties: statehood.

• The Popular Democratic Party (PDP) is pro-territory. They want no change.

• The New Progressive Party (NPP) is pro-statehood. They want two seats in the Senate and a 51st star on the flag.

The race: The PDP now has two candidates in the race for governor — Juan Zaragoza and Jesús Manuel Ortiz (both territorial legislators). But the real action is in the NPP primary. Why? Because it features a Democrat and a Republican running for the same party nomination.

• The current governor, Pedro Pierluisi, is a member of the NPP. And, when it comes to mainland politics, he’s a Democrat. He served as one for eight years as resident commissioner.

• His primary challenger, Jenniffer González, is also a member of the NPP. But, as the current resident commissioner, she’s a Republican.

Independence: The race also features an Indepenence candidate. That is, a member of the Puerto Rican Independence Party that favors breaking ties with the U.S. completely. They’re a small minority and are unlikely to be a factor.

Future: We don’t make predictions. But we’ll note that Pierluisi won the governorship in 2020 with a ginormous 33% of the vote in a six-way race. An electoral juggernaut he is not.

 NEWS 

🏛️ Diplomacy: A decades old diplomatic fight between the United Kingdom and Greece continued apace this week when U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak canceled a meeting with Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Why the schoolyard spat? The Elgin Marbles, of course. Or, if you're Greek, the Parthenon Sculptures. Back in 1816, when Greece was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, the Ottomans (big fan of their furniture) let the Brits, in the form of fellow named Lord Elgin, take some rocks home to the British Museum. Which rocks, you ask? Humongous marble chunks of the 2,500 year old Parthenon that sits atop the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. We're talking hundreds of feet of sculpture here. The Greeks are still angry over it. But the Brits won't budge.

🌍 NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization held a meeting this week at its HQ in Brussels, Belgium. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (Norway's former prime minister) urged members to “stay the course” on military funding for Ukraine. He voiced his confidence that the Biden administration’s $60 billion military aid bill would soon pass a hesitant Congress. Stoltenberg also promised Ukraine would join the alliance as soon as the war ends (this meeting was technically a joint Ukraine-NATO summit). Since NATO rules view any invasion of one member as an invasion of all, no nation may join while its borders are in dispute (or, in this case, a war with Russia).

🇺🇸 Carter: The public memorial service for former First Lady Rosalynn Carter was held yesterday in Atlanta. She passed away last week at 96. At funerals like this, former presidents and first ladies typically all sit on the front row together in reverse chronological order. That’s what gave us the classic “George W. Bush passes candy to Michelle Obama” moment at John McCain’s 2018 service. President Jimmy Carter, 99, made a rare public appearance at his wife’s memorial today — he’s been in hospice care since February. Rosalynn Carter will be laid to rest today near the Carter home in tiny Plains, Georgia.

 POLITICS 

Two Cornell frat bros just won city council seats in Ithaca, NY. One of the two even ran a write-in campaign, meaning his name did not even appear on the ballot (voters had to write it in). His main opponent literally did not even know he was running. These two young politicos won by slim margins of 25 and 9 votes. And they did so with the votes of their Cornell fraternity brothers on a platform of — wait for it — changing city noise ordinances to allow for later frat parties. Is this real life? Or is it a guerilla marketing campaign for a Seth Rogen movie?

The House is probably expelling Rep. George Santos this week. Rep. Robert Garcia filed a motion on Tuesday to do just that. Because House rules are weird and Garcia filed it as a “privileged" resolution, it has to be brought to the floor for a vote by tomorrow. Last time the House tried to expel Santos, a big chunk of members voted “no" while the Ethics Committee completed its investigation. That’s done now and...it's pretty damning. Pro tip: if you’re going to illegally spend campaign money on Botox, don’t list that on official documents. A 2/3 majority is required to kick him to the curb and it looks like that report flipped enough votes. Santos himself has said he thinks his goose is cooked. And he just might try to to bring down the House with him.

Democrats won the redistricting battle in New Mexico. Every ten years, states redraw (or remap) their congressional districts to account for changes in population. In the 2021-22 process, the state's second congressional district flipped from R-leaning to D-leaning. So New Mexico Republicans sued. They argued the Democratic legislature illegally and deliberately put loads of Democratic-leaning areas into an otherwise Republican-leaning congressional district. The New Mexico Supreme Court just ruled against them. The district was not illegally gerrymandered (that is, drawn to the political advantage of one party over another).

 TRIVIA 

 BRIEFS 

🔋 Tesla will begin Cybertruck deliveries tomorrow, beginning with a whole 10 vehicles (that will likely go to Tesla employees). With admitted production issues and over 2 million preorders, the backlog is going to take years to plow through.

🗳️ Activists in Nebraska want to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution. They hope to get enough signatures to force the measure onto the ballot next year. As of this year, abortion is illegal in the state after 12 weeks gestation.

🍇 Can one man single-handedly save America’s once-booming wine industry? Don’t fret: California’s Napa Valley is doing fine. We’re talking about wine heaven here (otherwise known as Missouri).

⚖️ After 11 long years in prison, C.J. Rice might go free. Sentenced to 30 to 60 years for a 2011 shooting, a federal judge ruled he received “ineffective counsel” and must be retried or freed.

😜 Gaffe of the week: Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona quoted President Reagan, saying “We’re from the government and we’re here to help.” What’s the problem? The full Reagan quote has precisely the opposite meaning: "I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" Oops.

 QUOTE 

 ANSWER 

With 424 members, the largest state legislature belongs to New Hampshire. The House has 400 members! And the Senate has…24.

Each member of the New Hampshire House of Representative represents less than 3,500 people. They’re paid a cool $100 a year and don’t meet very often. For comparison, California’s 80 state reps each represent 487,000 people.

To make it crazier, the state uses multi-member districts. Some people have to vote for ELEVEN state reps every election. You may as well vote based on funniest name at that point.

So next time you see a headline about a nutty NH state rep, remember that that person’s own constituents probably don’t even know who they are.