Early life and education

Acevedo Vilá was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and attended the Colegio San José High School in the same municipality, where he graduated as president of the class in 1979. In 1982, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras. He continued his studies in Law at the same campus, where he was elected Vice President of the Student Council and served as Editor-in-Chief of the law journal published by the school. He obtained his Juris Doctor in 1985, graduating magna cum laude. After passing the Puerto Rican bar, Acevedo Vilá completed a year-long clerkship at the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, where he worked under Justice Federico Hernández Denton. In 1987, he obtained a Master's degree in Law from Harvard University. From 1987 to 1988, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Levin Campbell, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston, Massachusetts]].

Political career

Acevedo Vilá began his political career in 1989 when he worked as Advisor in Legislative Affairs to then-Governor Rafael Hernández Colón. In 1992 he was elected as Representative At-Large to Puerto Rico's House of Representatives. He developed his leadership skills during this period and was able to win reelection in 1996. The following year, his party elected him Minority Leader of the House. In February 1997, Acevedo Vilá was elected President of the Popular Democratic Party.

In 1998, Acevedo Vilá participated in a campaign against the Young Bill, a proposed legislative project headed by the U.S. Congress which sought to resolve the political status of Puerto Rico by calling a referendum. However, the referendum called for in the project would not have included the option for Puerto Rico to remain a commonwealth with the United States.

Although the project failed to become law, Puerto Rico's elected officials at the time headed by Governor Pedro Rosselló organized a non-binding plebiscite to define Puerto Rico's political status, in which Puerto Ricans were given five options in the ballot: commonwealth, associated republic, statehood, independence from the United States, or "none of the above".

Acevedo and his party believed that the definition for the commonwealth which was included in the plebsicite ballot was ill-defined; therefore, his party campaigned for the "none of the above" option, which ultimately won over the other options on the ballot. (See Puerto Rico status referenda for more information.)

Resident Commissioner

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Governor Acevedo Vilá and Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño shake hands.

In 2000, Acevedo Vilá ran for Resident Commissioner of the island after defeating José Hernández Mayoral in their party's primary election. Later that year, Acevedo Vilá defeated Carlos Romero Barceló, the incumbent Resident Commissioner.

In the summer of 2003, Governor Sila M. Calderón announced she would not seek re-election the following year. José Hernández Mayoral surfaced as the likely party's candidate for Governor for the 2004 elections. Months following the announcement, Hernández Mayoral widthdrew from the race, citing personal matters. Acevedo Vilá filled the vacant candidacy due to the support he received from influential mayors of several Puerto Rican municipalities.

Acevedo won the Puerto Rico General Elections of 2004 by approximately 3,800 votes (0.2 percent of the vote) over former-governor Pedro Rosselló. However, since the margin of victory was so small, a full recount of the elections took place. During the period, Rosselló filed a civil law suit against Acevedo Vila himself over a dispute of certain ballots that were cast during the elections. The case moved up to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, where three judges ruled that the case the question of whether the ballots were properly cast or not was a question of state law and therefore should be seen by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled that the ballots in question were valid. On December 28, 2004 the recount ended and Acevedo was certified as the winner of the elections.

Governor

Acevedo assumed the office of Governor on January 2, 2005 facing many political challenges during his term. This is due to the fact that the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico is controlled by a different party, the New Progressive Party (PNP by its acronym in Spanish). The new Resident Commissioner is also member of the PNP, and Acevedo's main political rival, Pedro Rossello, managed to gain a seat in the Senate of Puerto Rico.

Because the executive and the legislative branches of the government are controlled by different political parties, Governor Acevedo Vilá has called his government a "shared government". During the first months of his term, Acevedo concentrated his efforts on trying to reach bipartisan support for his projects and for the nominees of his cabinet. However, when Acevedo vetoed a legislative project proposed by the PNP the ideal of a peaceful "shared government" collapsed. Senators and Representatives from the PNP opted to oppose most of the persons nominated by the Governor for the cabinet.

A major controversy took place in May, 2005, when the House of Representatives voted on the confirmation of Marisara Pont for the post of Secretary of State. The final vote ended 24-16, in favor of the confirmation. Some members of the PNP voted for Pont. However, the Speaker of the House, Jose Aponte, concluded that in order for Pont to be confirmed, she needed an absolute majority. Therefore, Aponte announced that the House had vetoed the nomination of Pont.

Acevedo Vilá decided to oppose this decision by going to the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. However, Aponte ordered to stop some of the procedures in the House of Representatives until Acevedo Vila publicly apologized for, what he called, "defying" the Puerto Rican Legislature. Although the Governor did not apologize, Aponte decided to continue with the House's procedures. Eventually, the Supreme Court voted 5-1 in favor of Aponte and Pont was not confirmed as Secretary of State.

Later on the same month, confrontations between the executive and the legislative branches reached a new climax when the Puerto Rican Legislature voted to overwrite a veto by Acevedo Vilá. He became the first democratically elected governor to have a veto overwritten by the Legislature.