Gov. of Puerto Rico Endorses Obama

Huge Endorsement!

This is huge because PR with its 63 delegates (winner take all I believe) could play a major roll in deciding the nominee if it has to get to that point.

Also...despite Hillary's advantage with Latinos, the rule in PR seems to be: As the governor goes, so goes Puerto Rico.

No time to get lax now!  LET'S KEEP WORKING LIKE WE'RE UNDERDOGS!

A couple of more things to keep in mind: JESSE JACKSON won Puerto Rico in 1988 over Michael Dukakis!

Puerto Ricans, unlike other Latino groups have always had much more affinity with African Americans.

http://ruralvotes.com/...

•  Winner take all??

  by ablington on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 09:23:13 AM PDT

  •  I

    don't think so.  I thought that there were no winner take all primaries for the Dems now.

    by Bama Hawkeye on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 09:31:41 AM PDT

  •  There is no winner-take-all.

    This is all the result of Michael Barone being an idiot. He heard that PR's leaders encourage the caucuses to choose a single a candidate, without bothering to figure out that the PR caucuses are held late in the cycle, after the nomination has been wrapped up.

    by Desroko on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 09:38:54 AM PDT

  •  Not this year

    Puerto Ricans will vote according to much the same proportional representation rules that govern Democratic party primaries and caucuses in the 50 states. The notion of Puerto Rico being a "winner-take-all" jurisdiction stems from previous presidential primary contests, which were pretty much over by the time the Puerto Ricans got to vote. John Kerry swept Puerto Rico in 2004 just as Al Gore triumphed in 2000 because they were the only candidates left in the race, and the party bosses could manipulate the caucus process.

    This time will be very different, according to several Puerto Rican Democratic leaders I contacted earlier today by phone. At present, Puerto Rico is scheduled to hold a caucus--not a primary--on June 7. If the race is still competitive, participation is likely to be very high, and there is no way that one candidate will sweep all the delegates.

    WaPo Fact Checker

    by bleeding blue on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 09:39:32 AM PDT

•  Thanks for getting the news up.

  And it is good news.

  Could you expand this with some more text and / or links?  This is pretty light for a diary.  Because of that, I can't really rec it.

  by mijita on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 09:27:22 AM PDT

•  PR only has 55 pledged delegates

  the 63 may be including superdelegates.

  Hillary had an advantage with California latinos, but as many have said, latino's aren't a uniform group.  Obama won the (albeit small) hispanic vote in VA last night, and from anecdotal reports from Texas he is doing pretty well there.

  Also, I don't think PR can allocate delegates winner take all, it's against the DNC rules.

  by bawbie on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 09:30:55 AM PDT

  •  It's not really winner-take-all

    It's just seemed that way since Puerto Rico has always held it's primary late and both parties endorsed whomever had already locked up the nomination.

    Acevedo-Vila's endorsement of Obama runs counter to the members of the other major Puerto Rican party who have all endorsed Clinton. If those endorsements hold and the race is still competitive until PR's caucuses, I believe you'll see the first contested Presidential race in PR's history.

    by Daaaaave on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 09:34:01 AM PDT

•  Only the Primary will tell

  Be careful about what will happen with Puerto Rico - the Governor goes???  so goes the people???

  Are you from PR?  If not, I caution you, be careful...

  by BronxBoy71 on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 09:38:11 AM PDT

  •  anibal acevedo vila

    im from puerto rico...theyre planning to legislate a primary...and theyve not decided between winner takes all and proportional...but i have to say that here in puerto rico is not about hillary vs obama...we dont care about that...this will be a fight between anibal acevedo vila and pedro rosello(ex-governor) in what will be a preview of the rematch they will have in november...the democratic and republican parties do not exist here...it is ALL abou the PNP (pro-statehood) vs PPD (pro-commonwealth)

    by efrainbet on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 10:22:13 AM PDT