|
 |
|
|
|
Este informe no está disponible en español. DOW JONES INTERNATIONAL NEWSGore Secures 58 Delegates From Puerto RicoMarch 28, 2000 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)--Vice President Al Gore secured 58 delegates from Puerto Rico Tuesday as Democratic Party officials announced the delegation candidates for its April 9 caucus. The party on Tuesday certified one candidate for each of 52 elected slots, and all have declared themselves committed to Gore, local president Eudaldo Baez Galib said. The lineup will become official at the April 9 caucus in San Juan. Party officers - all Gore supporters - will occupy the other six voting slots in the delegation at the Aug. 14 convention in Los Angeles. "From now on it's academic - Gore is guaranteed all of the delegates," Baez Galib said. As residents of a U.S. territory, Puerto Ricans can't vote in the November presidential election, but they can raise campaign funds and send delegates to the national party conventions. Puerto Rico 's 3.8 million residents are overwhelmingly Democratic, and the territory commands 58 voting delegates - more than 26 states, and the same number as Kentucky and Oregon. "The fact that he has gotten this support has a very strong, persuasive influence among the Hispanic community in the United States," Baez Galib. Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rossello is Gore's campaign adviser on Hispanic affairs and one of his largest fund raisers. Gore's main challenger, Bill Bradley, visited Puerto Rico in August but dropped out of the race earlier this month. Lyndon LaRouche was the only other candidate to express interest in capturing Puerto Rico 's delegates, and he missed the deadline for assembling a campaign committee, Baez Galib said. Since Gore dominates the pool of delegate nominees, the party Tuesday canceled meetings in eight cities planned for Sunday that were to separate Bradley and Gore advocates. The announcement Tuesday also seals a rare compromise between local Democrats who advocate U.S. statehood for Puerto Rico and those who favor the current commonwealth arrangement with the U.S. Half of the delegates will be pro- statehood and half will be pro-commonwealth, Baez Galib said. The compromise solved a leadership dispute that prevented it from holding party primaries last Sunday. "In the end, it all worked out - we agreed on a split and saved the treasury $2 million that would have been spent on a primary," said Kenneth McClintock, co-chair of the local Gore campaign.
|
