61 Facts About Kenneth McClintock

Kenneth McClintock chaired Luis Fortuno's Incoming Committee on Government Transition in 2008 and the Outgoing Committee on Government Transition in 2012, the first Puerto Rican to serve in both capacities.

Kenneth McClintock was sworn into office as secretary of state on January 2,2009, by Chief Justice Federico Hernandez Denton, fulfilling the role of lieutenant governor in the islands.

Kenneth McClintock was appointed by Governor Pedro Pierluisi as a member of the Civil Rights Commission on February 8,2024, a nomination pending Senate confirmation.

Kenneth McClintock's father, George Davison McClintock, a Scottish-American architect born in Texas City, Texas, was working for the United States Air Force at the time.

Kenneth McClintock's mother, Nivea Mercedes Hernandez, born in Puerto Rico, was a university professor and a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Puerto Rico.

Kenneth McClintock graduated from University High School in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, in 1974, where he served as student council president, studied from 1974 to 1977 at the UPRRP College of Business Administration, and in 1980 obtained his Juris Doctor from Tulane University Law School.

Kenneth McClintock never applied for admission to the bar, neither in Louisiana nor in Puerto Rico, as his intention was not to practice law but to be a public servant.

Kenneth McClintock began that public service before law school, as the 19-year old staff director for the Puerto Rico House of Representatives Consumer Affairs Committee.

Kenneth McClintock subsequently served as a legislative assistant to the New Party for Progress House delegation.

Kenneth McClintock has spent most of his adult life working in the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly, first as a full-time staffer and subsequently as a legislator, before serving as secretary of state and lieutenant governor.

Kenneth McClintock was married in 1994, to Maria Elena Batista, who served from 2001 to 2013 as director of Sports and Recreation for the municipality of San Juan and a former 1988 Olympic swimmer.

Kenneth McClintock lives in San Juan where he is an active member of the Puerto Rican Episcopal Church.

In 1979 Kenneth McClintock served as the first president of the Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association, which he cofounded with Luis Fortuno, then a Georgetown University undergrad.

Kenneth McClintock was the executive director of the US Democratic Party, chapter of Puerto Rico, from 1984 to 1988 and attended all eleven Democratic Party conventions from 1976 to 2016 as a delegate, a superdelegate or as a staffer.

Kenneth McClintock was a Municipal Councilman for San Juan from 1990 to 1992 and during his tenure was the author of the municipal ordinance that raised the salaries of Municipal Guards beyond $1,000 a month for the first time in Puerto Rican history.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton appointed Kenneth McClintock as an at-large member of the Democratic Platform Committee, where he was a drafter of the platform plank on Puerto Rico.

Kenneth McClintock's efforts included the approval of a Concurrent Resolution by the legislature and lobbying in Washington.

Kenneth McClintock was part of the official delegation that attended the December 14,1999, ceremonies commemorating the final turnover on December 31,1999, of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian authorities.

Kenneth McClintock authored over 1,200 legislative measures during his 16 years in the Senate, of which over 200 became law.

Kenneth McClintock served as the second president of the Parliamentary Conference of the Americas from 1999 to 2000, a forum that brings together the parliamentary assemblies of the unitary, federal and federated states, regional parliaments and interparliamentary organizations of the Americas.

Kenneth McClintock has testified in diverse hearings of the Congressional Committees, and has been the guest speaker in several universities throughout the United States.

Kenneth McClintock has been interviewed in ABC's Good Morning America, has debated on Fox News Network and has appeared on BBC news programs, as well as on C-SPAN's Washington Journal.

Kenneth McClintock attended his eleventh consecutive convention in Philadelphia in July 2016 and has already been certified a super delegate to the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

From January 10,2005 to December 31,2008, Kenneth McClintock presided over the Senate of Puerto Rico.

Kenneth McClintock's presidency was in jeopardy during most of that year, as former Governor Pedro Rossello was sworn in as a member of the Senate on February 13,2005, and sought the Presidency for the remainder of the term.

Kenneth McClintock participated in the multilateral negotiations between the governor, the Speaker, McClintock, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Juan, the Episcopal bishop for the Diocese of Puerto Rico and several Protestant leaders, in breaking the logjam that led to the end of a two-week-long government shutdown in May 2006.

However, when that issue was raised on the floor of the Senate, Kenneth McClintock ordered an investigation on legislative productivity that he stated statistically demonstrated that committee output was higher during the third legislative session than during the first.

On February 23,2007, Kenneth McClintock announced that if the party disciplinary sanctions were not lifted "within a reasonable time" he would file suit to protect "not only the constitutional rights of the senators who have been sanctioned but the rights of party members to freely select the candidates of their choice in the March 2008 primary".

All sanctions against the Kenneth McClintock Six were nullified by San Juan Superior Court Judge Oscar Davila Suliveres on May 8,2007, who determined that they had broken no programmatic or rule-based accord, and that they were free to run in the NPP's 2008 primary.

On December 31,2008, after a full term as Senate President, Kenneth McClintock ended his 16-year career as a legislator, as he prepared to assume the duties of Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, for which he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, including many senators who had withdrawn their political support for him in the past.

Kenneth McClintock championed improving school-level physical and health education, the theme of his World Health Day 2006 address before the Panamerican Health Organization in Washington, DC.

Kenneth McClintock was a frequent speaker at stateside universities, where he addressed Puerto Rico's political status issue.

In 2007, Kenneth McClintock convened a meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, of Senate presidents from Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, the Northern Marianas Islands and Puerto Rico to establish the Outlying Areas Senate Presidents Caucus to discuss issues common to the nation's outlying areas and devise common strategies to deal with such issues.

Kenneth McClintock's presidency began to draw to a close when on June 30,2008, he gaveled the Senate out of the seventh and last regular session of the term.

Kenneth McClintock remained as president until December 31,2008, a day after he called the Senate into a final special session, when he turned over the gavel to Senate Secretary Manuel A Torres, who served as Acting President until the fourteenth Senate President, Thomas Rivera Schatz was officially elected on January 12,2009.

On September 11,2008, Kenneth McClintock presided over the first joint meeting of the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly outside the Capitol ever, held at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to commemorate the 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks against the United States and present the Military Medal of the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly to those residents of Puerto Rico who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kenneth McClintock was appointed by Governor-Elect Luis Fortuno, to serve as chairman of the Incoming Committee on Government Transition.

Kenneth McClintock was active in the National Lieutenant Governors Association and the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Kenneth McClintock was sworn in, under a recess appointment, as the 22nd Secretary of State of Puerto Rico on the morning of January 2,2009 by Puerto Rico Supreme Court Chief Justice Federico Hernandez Denton in the court's chambers minutes after he privately swore in Gov.

Kenneth McClintock was designated by Fortuno to lead the Puerto Rico governments efforts to facilitate the islands' transition to digital television.

Kenneth McClintock has been designated as chairman of the government's efforts to assist in the 2010 census, as well as the five-member Executive Branch Reorganization and Modernization Committee that produced 13 reorganization plans, eleven of which became law.

Kenneth McClintock chaired a five-member Legislative Reform Committee that made recommendations in October 2009 regarding a revamping of Puerto Rico's legislature.

Domestically, Kenneth McClintock frequently participates as a speaker at activities throughout the states, Puerto Rico and foreign countries.

Kenneth McClintock subsequently met with Preval in San Juan and was appointed by Secretary Hillary Clinton as part of the United States delegation to a meeting in Martinique in March 2010 to plan the multi-nation redevelopment of Haiti.

Kenneth McClintock helped coordinate Puerto Rico's initial response to the massive February 27,2010, earthquake in Chile.

Kenneth McClintock subsequently hosted NASS' 2012 summer meeting in San Juan.

Secretary Kenneth McClintock visited eleven countries, including being a member of United States delegations, traveling to coordinate disaster relief, represent Gov.

On July 1,2000, Kenneth McClintock led COPA's Mission of Electoral Observers during Mexico's presidential elections which the nation's ruling party for decades lost to Vicente Fox, who became President of Mexico later that year.

Kenneth McClintock has hosted ministerial- and ambassadorial-level diplomats, such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the ambassadors of Spain, Israel and the Czech Republic, ss well as members of royal families such as Haya bint Hussein, Princess of Jordan and president of the International Federation for Equestrian Sports, among other notable figures, such as then-businessman Donald Trump, later elected President of the United States and former Vice President of the United States Al Gore.

Kenneth McClintock has spoken extensively about this Fortuno administration proposal at numerous conferences, including some specifically organized to discuss the proposed grid, since he first proposed it in December 2009.

Alejandro Garcia Padilla as the 10th elected Governor of Puerto Rico on November 6,2012, Kenneth McClintock became the statutory chairman of Governor Fortuno's Outgoing Committee on Government Transition, the first and so far only to have chaired both the Incoming and Outgoing Committee on Transition since the approval of the Government Transition Law of 2004.

Kenneth McClintock was recruited by the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico to teach American Government and Government Management courses and a Legislative Procedure seminar at its Metro campus in San Juan.

Kenneth McClintock worked for Politank*, a Puerto Rico-based bipartisan government affairs firm from 2013 to 2017 as its Senior Public Policy Advisor and was frequently asked to speak at legislative hearings, public ceremonies or in the media.

For over two decades, Kenneth McClintock has been a member of the board of directors of The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars, a Washington, DC-based non-profit.

Kenneth McClintock serves as a member of the board of St Luke's and of the Episcopal Seminary of St Peter and St Paul.

Kenneth McClintock has co-authored one book with Puerto Rico Democratic Party State Chair Roberto Prats:.

For over a quarter century Kenneth McClintock has been a member of the board of directors of TWC, a non-profit based in Washington, DC.

On June 14,2012, McClintock was awarded the Ana G Mendez University System Presidential Medal by then system president Jose F Mendez during the Metropolitan University commencement ceremonies held at the Pedro Rossello Convention Center.

On September 6,2012, late in the September 5 session of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Kenneth McClintock participated in the Roll Call of the States to record Puerto Rico's vote in the nomination of President Barack Obama for a second term in office.

On January 11,2025, McClintock cut off Martin E Souto Acero while merging into a traffic lane.

Kenneth McClintock defended himself by saying he had used his turn signal.