24th Senate of Puerto Rico

24th Senate of Puerto Rico
In session
January 2, 2009 – January 1, 2013
Leadership
President	Thomas Rivera Schatz
President pro tem	Margarita Nolasco
Majority Leader	Larry Seilhamer
Majority Whip	Lucy Arce
Minority Leader	José Luis Dalmau
Minority Whip	Eduardo Bhatia
Non-officers
Secretary	Brunilda Ortíz
Sergeant-at-Arms	Billy Sánchez
Structure
Seats	31 voting members
Parties represented	PNP   PPD
Length of term	4 years
Legislature
16th Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico
Lower house
28th House of Representatives of Puerto Rico
Sessions
1st January 14, 2009 – January 12, 2010 2nd January 13, 2010 – January 11, 2011 3rd January 12, 2011 – January 10, 2012 4th January 11, 2012 – January 1, 2013

The 24th Senate of Puerto Rico was the upper house of the 16th Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico that met from January 2, 2009, to January 1, 2013. All members were elected in the General Elections of 2008. The Senate had a majority of members from the New Progressive Party (PNP).

The body is counterparted by the 28th House of Representatives of Puerto Rico in the lower house.

Leadership

Position	Name	Party	District
President of the Senate	Thomas Rivera Schatz	PNP	At-Large
President pro Tempore	Margarita Nolasco Santiago	PNP	At-Large
Majority Leader	Larry Seilhamer Rodríguez	PNP	V
Majority Whip	Luz Arce Ferrer	PNP	At-large
Minority Leader	José Luis Dalmau	PPD	At-Large
Minority Whip	Eduardo Bhatia	PPD	At-Large

Members

Summary

Affiliation	Party (Shading indicates majority caucus)			Total
	PNP	PPD	Ind		Vacant
End of previous legislature	17	9	1	27	0
Begin	22	8	0	31	0
January 28, 2012	20			28	3
Latest voting share	72.4%	27.6%

Membership

District	Name	Party
I - San Juan	Liza Fernández Rodríguez	PNP
	Kimmey Raschke Martínez	PNP
II - Bayamón	Migdalia Padilla Alvelo	PNP
	Carmelo Ríos Santiago	PNP
III - Arecibo	José Emilio González Velázquez	PNP
	Angel Martínez Santiago	PNP
IV - Mayagüez-Aguadilla	Luis Daniel Muñiz Cortes	PNP
	Evelyn Vázquez Nieves	PNP
V - Ponce	Luis A. Berdiel Rivera	PNP
	Larry Seilhamer Rodriguez	PNP
VI - Guayama	Miguel Rodríguez	PNP
	Carlos J. Torres Torres	PNP
VII - Humacao	José R. Díaz Hernández	PNP
	Luz M. Santiago Gonzalez	PNP
VIII - Carolina	Roger Iglesias	PNP
	Lornna Soto Villanueva	PNP
At-Large	Luz Arce Ferrer	PNP
	Eduardo Bhatia	PPD
	Norma Burgos	PNP
	José Luis Dalmau	PPD
	Antonio Fas Alzamora	PPD
	Alejandro García Padilla	PPD
	Sila María González Calderón	PPD
	Juan Eugenio Hernández Mayoral	PPD
	Margarita Nolasco Santiago	PNP
	Angel Rodríguez Otero	PPD
	Itzamar Peña Ramírez	PNP
	Thomas Rivera Schatz	PNP
	Melinda Romero Donnelly	PNP
	Cirilo Tirado Rivera	PPD
	Jorge Suárez Cáceres	PPD

Party		At-large			District			Total seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	New Progressive Party	886,196	48.12	6	1,887,968	51.20	16	22
	Popular Democratic Party	803,415	43.63	9	1,632,545	44.28	0	9
	Puerto Rican Independence Party	90,171	4.90	0	80,920	2.19	0	0
	Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico Party	38,103	2.07	0	84,437	2.29	0	0
	Other parties	412	0.02	0	1,224	0.03	0	0
	Independents	23,158	1.26	0				0
Total		1,841,455	100.00	15	3,687,094	100.00	16	31
Valid votes		1,841,455	98.95
Invalid votes		8,428	0.45
Blank votes		11,055	0.59
Total votes		1,860,938	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		2,458,036	75.71
Source: Puerto Rico Election Archive