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P 091103Z MAR 06
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UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000827 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA, WHA/CAR, WHA/EPSC, INR/IAA, EB, EB/IFD/OMA, 
; USSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD; TREASURY FOR OASIA-J LEVINE; 
DEPT PASS USTR; USDOC FOR 4322/ITA/MAC/WH/CARIBBEAN BASIN 
DIVISION; 
USDOC FOR 3134/ITA/USFCS/RD/WH; DHS FOR CIS-CARLOS ITURREGUI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: DR PGOV PINR
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN ELECTIONS 2006 SERIES #2: ALFREDO 
PACHECO: RISING STAR IN DOMINICAN POLITICS 
 
REF: SANTO DOMINGO 0508 
 
¶1.  (SBU) This is the second cable in a series reporting on 
the upcoming elections in the Dominican Republic . 
 
Alfredo Pacheco: Rising Star in Dominican Politics 
- - - - - - -  - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - - - - 
 
Opposition PRD National District president Cesar Cabrera gave 
political officer at lunch March 2 a glimpse of the 
high-stakes campaign for mayor of the capital city.  Cabrera 
foresaw that younger politicians, especially mayoral 
candidate Alfredo Pacheco, will supplant discredited PRD 
leaders in the next few years. 
 
Pacheco, who last June trailed incumbent mayor Roberto 
Salcedo of the ruling PLD in voter preferences 27%-62%, now 
leads by 47%-43%, according to a poll trusted by Cabrera (who 
dismissed another poll that gave Pacheco a 13% lead). 
 
Pacheco has done this on a shoestring; campaign spending so 
far has been only 15 million pesos (465,000 dollars).  But 
businesses that have benefited from Pacheco's widely admired 
performance in Congress have contributed favors in kind, 
particularly advertising.  From October through January, 
Pacheco's television ads were aired gratis on three channels 
owned by communications magnate Pepin Corripio.  Now the ads 
are being run at below-market prices.  Similar support from 
rum distillery heir "Poppy" Bermudez is due to Pacheco's 
principled opposition to a legislative attempt to close down 
the Bermudez TV channel.  Gomez Diaz, another TV broadcaster, 
is backing Pacheco   Dominican National Brewery's owner, the 
Santiago-based Leon Jimenez group, is also kicking in. 
Mayor Salcedo of course has his own stable of camaign 
contributors from local business. 
 
Pacheco is a new breed of Dominican politician, judged 
Cabrera.  Many seek an "economic career," combining business 
and politics for personal gain; but  Pacheco has built a 
service-oriented "political career."  "More powerful than 
most, he still lives in a humble house in the (low-income) 
barrio of Cristo Rey -- it's incredible."  He appeals to 
voters as an ethical man-of-the-pueblo. 
 
Pacheco is running under the banner of the opposition "Pink 
Alliance," which includes the PRD, PRSC and five minor 
parties.  The alliance, the first of  its kind in Dominican 
congressional and municipal elections, is requiring strenuous 
effort by organizers to keep the troops in line.  That's 
Cabrera's job in the National District.  He works from 7 a.m. 
to midnight, meeting individually with candidates for seats 
in congress (18) and city council (37), including many who 
did not bother to run in the party primary. 
 
Nationwide, the Alliance has forced some of the PRD 
contenders to withdraw in favor of Reformistas, usually not 
without protests or intervention by local party chiefs.  PRD 
mayoral candidates traditionally have designated some of the 
candidates to their cities' councils.  And this year 
ambitious PRD president Ramon Alburquerque is trying to 
impose his own people, groused Cabrera.  He was looking 
forward to the end of the process, the proclamation of the 
Alliance candidates in each locality in early March. 
 
Complementing the favorable prospects in the capital mayoral 
race is Alliance candidate for senator Johnny Jones (PRSC), 
who is ahead of PLD candidate Reinaldo Pared Perez according 
to Cabrera.  But Cabrera failed to mention a development that 
broke in the news media on March 3:  prominent PRSC 
congresswoman Alexandra Izquierdo broke with the "Pink 
Alliance" and signed onto the ruling PLD's campaign as the 
vice-mayoral candidate, a move that can only boost Salcedo's 
chances.  Izquierdo was the first vice president of the PRSC 
and as such was prohibited by party statutes from being a 
candidate. 
 
In the capital's outskirts, the PRD mayors of Santo Domingo 
North, West, and East are heading toward reelection, as is 
the PRD candidate in Los Alcarrizos, in Cabrera's view.  But 
the popular PRD mayor of Boca Chica was pushed aside for a 
Reformista who has less support.  The Alliance senatorial 
candidate in Santo Domingo province, PRSC elder Vctor Gomez 
Berges, "has not taken off," and the outcome is uncertain 
against a lackluster PLD candidate.  The PLD may also pick up 
votes from a surprise announcement on March 2:  Retired Major 
General Juan Bautista Rojas Tabar, a former defense minister 
reportedly frustrated in his aspiration to be the Alliance 
candidate for mayor of Santo Domingo East, was brought back 
to active duty by President Fernandez as director of the 
Airport Security Corps (CESA).  Cabrera saw this as a 
pre-election deal that included naming Rojas's wife to be the 
ruling party's vice-mayoral candidate in Santo Domingo East. 
 
The nationwide outlook favors the PRD, according to Cabrera. 
The PRD will retain a majority of the Senate -- the PLD might 
get 5 senators of 32 -- and a plurality of the lower house, 
with the opposition alliance in control.  The PRD will also 
control a majority of the 154 municipal governments, but 
fewer than at present (115).  Fernandez, a popular president, 
is remote from his party's base and can't mobilize it 
effectively. 
 
Who controls the PRD nationally and is best placed to run for 
president in 2008?  None of the old lions, said Cabrera -- 
not ex-president Hipolito Mejia, ex-vice president Milagros 
Ortiz-Bosch, or ex-tourism minister "Fello"  Subervi 
(Cabera's long-time mentor).  All three refused to run for 
party president for the 2005-2009 term, preferring to keep 
their options open for the national campaign in 2008.  In 
doing so they distanced themselves from the party machine -- 
which will soon pass them by, said Cabrera. 
 
If a presidential convention were held today, former public 
works minister in the Mejia administration Miguel Vargas 
Maldonado would win the nomination, according to Cabrera's 
contacts among local PRD chiefs.  Wealthy businessman 
Maldonado is investing money and hard work building a 
campaign structure to support his candidacy. 
 
No PRD candidate, even Vargas Maldonado, can beat Leonel 
Fernandez's bid for reelection in 2008, Cabrera predicted. 
But by 2012, a new generation of the "Pink Alliance" will get 
its chance, and Pacheco will be its brightest star.  Others 
will include PRD secretary general Orlando Jorge Mera, son of 
a former Dominican president; PRSC secretary general Victor 
Gomez Casanova, son of Gomez Berges; and Reformista 
congressman Victor "Ito" Bisono Haza. 
 
Cabrera cautioned that political forecasts are risky, even 
for two years hence   The PRD won overwhelmingly in the last 
legislative and municipal elections (2002), but then "took a 
drubbing" in the 2004 vote that elected Fernandez. 
 
¶2.   (U) Drafted by Bainbridge Cowell . 
 
¶3.  (U) This piece and others in our series can be consulted 
at our SIPRNET web site 
(http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo)  along with 
extensive other material. 
KUBISKE