Tag: Puerto Rico '08

Update: CNN now has 98% of vote in . Hillary has a 140,000 vote lead.

96% of the vote is in. Check the links for final updates. Right now:

• Hillary: 254,482 votes, 68.38%
• Obama: 117,651 votes, 31.62%

Hillary leads by about 137,000 votes.

Delegate analysis here. Turnout looks to be about 375,000 so far.

Any moment.

Live-blogging: She's walking up amid hugs and cheers and Puerto Rican music.

Thank you so much, I have four words for you, Te Quiero Puerto Rico. I am grateful for this show of overwhelming support. I came to listen to your voices. I hear you, see you and will always stand up for you.

I recognize Sen. Obama and his supporters. We have turned out record numbers of new voters. We must elect a Democratic President. [More..]

The number I care about is the popular vote total after Puerto Rico. If Obama hasn't reached 2,118 pledged delegates when the votes are counted tonight, that number should be as important to superdelegates as the pledged delegate total. With Obama ahead in one and Hillary in the other, they now need to consider electability in November and the electoral map before making a final decision.

If the exit polls are correct, she beat Obama by 40 points, 70% to 30%.

If 400,000 people voted, she got 280,000 votes, while Obama got 120,000. That gives her a 160,000 vote popular vote boost.

Isn't she now indisputably the leader in the popular vote as of today? While we still need to wait for S.D. and MT where Obama is expected to win,those are small states. [More...]

Geraldo Rivera is in Puerto Rico. He interviewed Hillary Clinton but it hasn't aired yet.

From his live report:

• Turnout has been low to moderate.
• She needs 160,000 votes for popular vote lead
• She will win majority of delegates and superdelegates.

Fox News has a chiron at the bottom of their screen saying turnout may only be 20%. Major Garrett says turnout will be 300 - 400,000 votes. He also said she needs 96% of the uncommitted pledged delegates.

CNN will have exit polling.

Hillary Clinton is back in Puerto Rico where she will remain all weekend. 1,000 showed up to greet her tonight. (In Spanish.)

500,000 are expected to vote out of the more than 2 million registered voters. Recent polls had Hillary up by more than 10 points.

Prison inmates, by the way, are allowed to vote in Puerto Rico, even in the presidential primary. They vote at the prison. (article is in Spanish.)

Here's the translation of the article on Hillary's event tonight prepared from one of our new correspondents, a criminal defense attorney on scene in Puerto Rico: [More...]

Hillary Clinton got more support in Puerto Rico today.(in Spanish, my translation skills are minimal but here is what I get):

The president of the Office of Dominican Subjects in Puerto Rico, Luis Aguasvivas, today exhorted to his compatriots in the Island to vote for Hillary Clinton.

....“The triumph in Puerto Rico of the senator Hillary Clinton will contribute to the development of social projects in favor of our community, in the fields of migratory reform… federal aid to programs of improvement of health, education, allocation of resources for the development of micro-enterprises, as well as of technical-vocational programs of education”, it maintained in an official notice.

Singer Ricky Martin issued this press release in Puerto Rico today, urging voters to mobilize and vote for Hillary. [More...]

Here is Hillary Clinton's plan for Puerto Rico. Hillary, Bill and Chelsea have been actively campaigning there all weekend. Today, they attended a Memorial Day celebration in Capitolis. She also is hosting conversations with Puerto Rico families in Bayamon and Guayama. Later she will attend a union rally for civil servants in Ponce and another event in San Juan.

Hillary has accepted an invitation from Univision for a debate with Obama on issues of import to Puerto Rican voters. [More...]

(larger and clearer version here.)

Update: On Hillary's speech in Aguadilla Sat. night:

Clinton spoke at an evening rally in Aguadilla, where she reminded the crowd of her ties to Puerto Rico as a first lady and then as senator from New York, which has approximately 1 million Puerto Rican residents. "My commitment to Puerto Rico did not start last month or last year," she said. "I will always be your voice as president." Through her speech, Clinton drew applause by insisting Puerto Ricans should get the same tax breaks, health care and economic opportunity afforded mainland U.S. citizens. "You deserve a president who will give Puerto Rico's issues as much attention as the president gives to any state," she said.

****

The Democratic candidates today are in Puerto Rico. Hillary will be in Aguadilla tonight, on the northwest tip of the island.

There are 3.9 million people in Puerto Rico and 2.5 million registered voters. The major parties are the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) and the New Progressive Party (NPP). In 2004, 2 million people voted. [More...]

A new Puerto Rico poll has Hillary Clinton 13 points ahead of Barack Obama. The news article is in Spanish, but from my (admittedly not fluent) translation skills, it says:

The poll was done by Research & Reasearch.

Those polled identified themselves as Democrats. They endorsed Hillary by 50% and Obama by 37%. 13% were undecided.

For Francisco Domenech, a superdelegate supporting Hillary, the poll should not surprise anyone "because Hillary knows Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico knows Hillary".

An Obama backer says the result reflects the same tendency that has manifested elsewhere where Clinton always starts at the front due to the recognition factor and then recedes. He predicts that will happen in Puerto Rico as well.

The margin of error is 4.4%. Puerto Rico's primary is June 1.

Excellent news. Puerto Rico has decided against caucuses and in favor of a primary and moved the date up to June 1.

[Puerto Rico will] change the voting process from 8 caucuses to a primary with voting places in all 1,800+ barrios in Puerto Rico's 78 municipalities. This is done in light of the hundreds of thousands of Democrats expected to turn out on June 1, a late date in which we would have originally expected a pro-forma vote with low turnout.

Puerto Rico has 55 pledged delegates. The DNC has approved the move up to June 1. The last states will now be Montana and South Dakota, which vote on June 3.

Update [2008-3-7 10:15:21 by Big Tent Democrat]: I want to make one point about Puerto Rico that I think some folks are missing when predicting what will happen there. First it is not a winner take all contest. Nonetheless, I believe Hillary Clinton will run up big margins in Puerot Rico. As much as any jurisdiction in this contest, Puerto Rico has political machines for churning out the votes. There are no "new voters" for Obama to turn on. The political bosses turn out the vote. They are mostly with Clinton, especially the ones with the most powerful vote getting machines. The Governor of Puerto Rico, is not going to go all out for Obama and his machine is frankly, not as strong as others for THESE purposes. Puerto Rico will go Clinton 2-1 imo.