barriomulas.com - Yesterday's Primaries

53% of votes submitted in the at-Large senatorial race were for well known leftist or autonomist candidates. This is a very very good number for me. Of the 6 at-large senators that will move on to the November elections (of which anywhere from 4 to all of them will be default move onto win the elections due to the Constitution's minority representation articles), four of the candidates are party leftists. They are as follow:

Alejandro Garcia Padilla
Eduardo Bhatia
Antonio Fas Alzamora
Cirilo Tirado Rivera

Sadly, the famous children of former governors Sila Mari Gonzalez Calderon and Jose Eugenio Hernandez Mayoral (current members of Congress) also made it to the final six.

Only 24% of those submitted in the At-Large Representative race were leftists/autonomists. The later race actually had only three leftists/autonomists on a ballot of 14 candidates. Considering the fact that an elector must vote for up to six candidates off the ballot, one could see why a leftist would submit 4 of his votes for other candidates. (I actually don't use up my six votes, in order to fortify my candidates.) Of the top six candidates that move on to the November elections are:

Jorge Colberg Toro
Luis Vega Ramos

I was truly upset to see Angel Ortiz left out. Ortiz is not only a good acquaintance but a defender of Puerto Rican autonomy. I truly hope that Ortiz's aspirations continue to grow in following years.

On another note, Luis Fortuño beat the shit out of Pedro Rosello 60% to 40%. Rossello has already accepted defeat and co-workers tell me that he left to Virginia at 8:00pm last night. Good ridden. Let's hope this is truly the end of Rossello0.

On the other hand, Fortuño's win signifies the massive loss that the PPD will suffer in the November elections. While Rossello polarized electors, Fortuño will have the ability to suck up the disgruntled and conservative PPD supporters. Rossello supporters have been expected to give the cold shoulder to Fortuño, but the PNP have an ability to regroup and unify their front. After all, their members do have a consensus on their statehood ideology. Many people thought that the Pesquera and Rossello division would have lead to a solid loss on behalf of Rossello in the 2004 elections, but I guarantee you that Rossello's polarization of the anti-statehood sector had more to do with his minuscule loss than Pesquera did.

The primaries for candidacy of the PPD's mayorship of Ponce is also up in the air. Up until now it appears as if the incumbent Zayas Seijo is only but a few hundred votes ahead of leftist Carlos Jirau. I'm pleased to see Jirau, who continues the leftist trend of the former and late mayor Rafael Cordero Santiago, gather up such momentum. Hace alta Cordero's autonomist and leftist voice.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results of yesterday's primary. My candidates had a great turn out and two of my senatorial favorites pulled in the highest number of votes.

Edwin said:

Unfortionatly I disagree that pnp will win the next elections in Puerto Rico and I,ll tell you why.More than 200,000 votes for Fortuno were from los populares to take out Rosello{witch I think was a BIG mistake}but that is another issue.That was a credit from ppd.Althou I do think that some populares will vote for fortuno it won,t be the 200,000 or more that voted for him in the primaries .You take over 100.000 of those populares and 150,000 of the pissed off pnp that are not going to vote for Fortuno and we have the same crap all over again like we had with Sila.This is a fact and I stand by it .ps I will send this same email on november as reminder that I told you so.Edwin....

March 18, 2008 12:42 AM

Luis said:

Personally, I believe that both parties are in a similar situation - with a large portion of their followers disenchanted with the leadership.

I personally don't care who wins. Fortuño and Acevedo Vila are the same thing to me.

Only thing, is I imagine Fortuño being smarter with the budget.

March 18, 2008 1:40 PM