Breaking: Puerto Rico ditch their June 7 caucus and replace it with a June 1 Primary

[TeamJordan23]

I guess this now makes Montana and South Dakota primaries June 3 the last contests.

Breaking: Puerto Rico switches to a Primary, moves up to June 1

We've just been informed by email from Kenneth D. McClintock, DNC member from Puerto Rico, that Puerto Rico is changing from a caucus to a primary, and moving their date to June 1:

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.

Update: More information from Senator McClintock:

The change was approved unanimously by all members present, including many Clinton supporters (such as State Chair Prats and myself) and many Obama
supporters.

The rationale? There's no way we could handle more than a few tens of thousands of voters in eight district caucuses, while we can handle a million voters (at least 500 voters between 8am and 3 pm per polling place in each of 1,800+ barrios) in a primary.

By the end of the delegate selection season, we would normally have a pro-forma vote that could fit into caucuses. This time around, it was increasingly obvious that we'd have a turnout well in excess of caucus capacity.

http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/2008/03/breaking-puerto-rico-switches-to.html

[bicentennial_baby]

1. Due to political "tradition", PR is generally winner take all

How does this affect that? Hm.

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. Delegate selection rules for PR state proportional allotment.

[bicentennial_baby]

5. But everything I've read is that b/c of PR politics,

they generally follow the will of the Governor and all go for their candidate. I've heard this from several sources. If I'm wrong, please let me know. :)

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. here's a reference:

http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P08/PR-D.phtml

And from some of the things I've seen the current PR governor may not have the clout to swing the entire delegation for Obama, given that some of the PR senators are endorsing Clinton. So I'd expect a split outcome there to be the most likely result.

[Cha]

4. The other week DU was talking about

the winner take all in Puerto Rico and I swear there were those who said it wasn't really that way. So, we'll have to hear from more informed people for sure. :)

[bicentennial_baby]

6. Yeah, I can't find a definitive source yet.

:hi:

[Cha]

11. Found it..

Kittycat (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-13-08 09:37 AM
Original message
Puerto Rico is a Proportional Split of Pledged Delegates
I keep seeing posts that state that Puerto Rico is winner take all, however that is not the case. In the Presidential Primaries, PR is allotted a fixed number of delegates, that are split proportionately.

The pledged delegates are allocated among the states according to two main criteria: 1) proportion of votes each state gave the candidate in the last three Presidential elections; and 2) percentage of votes each state has in the Electoral College. Fixed numbers of delegates are allocated for Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Democrats Abroad. Under the party's Delegate Selection Rules for the 2008 Democratic National Convention<7>, delegates are awarded via proportional representation with a minimum threshold of 15% of votes in a state or congressional district to receive delegates. The delegate population must reflect the state's ethnic distribution; and at least 50% of the delegates must be women.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Democratic_National_C...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=4570782

:hi:

[democrattotheend]

9. Isn't winner take all against DNC rules?

[lonestarnot]

2. Well it sounds good, but I don't know if it is. How does one know?

[John Q. Citizen]

8. I'm skeptical. This was emailed at 12 midnight EST to one blog?

June 1 is a Sunday.

I'll wait for comformation before considering the implications

[Pirate Smile]

10. I remember reading in the past week or so that they did NOT want to go last.

They did not want their caucus/primary (whatever) to be the deciding factor.

[MonkeyFunk]

15. just a note...

Your sigline pic is far larger than the rules allow:

"You may have no more than one image (.jpg or .gif format) in your signature line at any time. This image may not exceed 500 pixels wide, 200 pixels tall, or a file size of 20 kilobytes."

[John Q. Citizen]

12. OK, now I'm no longer skepticle. I found this.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/02/puerto-rico-loo.html


Puerto Rico Looking to Give up Bragging Rights for Final Say
Email
Share February 29, 2008 2:10 PM

ABC News' David Chalian Reports: Once the results of the March 4 primaries are digested, there will clearly be a reassessment of the Democratic nomination contest and whether or not there seems to be a hunger on the part of Sen. Clinton and on the part of Democratic Party leaders for a protracted battle through the rest of the nomination calendar.

But fear not -- that calendar may not be as endless as it seems. Puerto Rico Democrats are about to give campaign operatives, political journalists, and voters a four day jump start on their summer vacations.

The Democratic National Committee is expected to receive a formal request this week from the Puerto Rico Democratic Party to move its nomination contest from June 7 to June 1. It appears that the June 7 date initially submitted to the DNC was a clerical error in the Puerto Rico delegate selection plan. The Democratic Party of Puerto Rico is also expected to seek DNC approval to change its contest from a state convention system to a primary system.

Should the change be approved, as expected, Montana and South Dakota Democratic voters are positioned to have the final word in the nomination calendar with those primaries scheduled to take place on Tuesday June 3.

[latinolatteliberal]

13. What issues will PR make us focus on?

Will Puerto Rico's 15 minutes in the sun be enough to bring up the question of statehood? Do they even want to be a state? I remember hearing about DC deserving more representation before the Potomac Primary.

[Zachstar]

14. Fair enough.

While I like the caucus process.. They made a case to do this early enough that it will not cause a mess.

By June that I feel that Clinton will either have Exited the race or will have been politically destroyed. So I look forward to June!