POLITICS 88 : Dukakis Gains 54 Puerto Rico Delegates--After Losing Race

Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis this week gained 54 Democratic delegate votes from Puerto Rico, a place where he lost the Democratic primary.

Dukakis also moved 101 votes ahead of his nearest rival, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, in the delegate tally kept by the Associated Press.

The AP listed 816.15 votes for Dukakis and 715.1 for Jackson.

Although Jackson beat Dukakis, 32% to 26%, in the March 20 Puerto Rico primary, that vote was simply a “beauty contest,” which did not control the commonwealth’s delegates, 51 of whom were elected in a separate contest the same day. That contest pitted two uncommitted slates against each other, one backed by the island’s pro-statehood party, the other by the ruling party of Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon. The governor’s slate won.

Travel to New York

On Wednesday, Hernandez Colon and Puerto Rico Senate President Miguel Hernandez Agosto traveled to New York to announce their endorsement of Dukakis to try to drum up Latino support for him in Tuesday’s New York presidential primary. They pledged the 51 votes of their slate plus the vote of Hernandez Colon, who is a convention “super delegate,” to Dukakis.

Puerto Rico’s eight Democratic National Committee members also are super delegates, sharing the island’s remaining four convention votes among themselves. Four of those delegates, casting two votes, are also members of the governor’s party and endorsed Dukakis. The disposition of the remaining votes is not known.

On Thursday, Jackson was asked at a news conference in Washington about the distribution of delegates in Puerto Rico, and replied:

“Suffice it to say that it is radically inconsistent in a democracy for the people to go in one direction and the delegates to go in another direction . . . . For the popular vote to go in one direction and delegates to go in another direction is instructive about the political climate in the country.”

Dukakis this week also gained in the delegate count when nine U.S. senators were nominated by their colleagues to attend the party’s national convention in July as super delegates.

Dukakis has 72.5 super delegates, while Jackson has 30.1, the AP survey found.

Gore, Simon Far Behind

Sens. Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee and Paul Simon of Illinois, whose own presidential campaigns are lagging far behind those of Dukakis and Jackson, also were nominated by the Democratic senators to be convention delegates. Gore picked up four additional Senate delegates, while Simon gained one other delegate.

The majority of super delegates chosen so far--268.25--remain uncommitted. There will be as many as 646 super delegates selected, all prominent party figures.

In all, 4,164 votes are to be cast at the national convention July 18-21 in Atlanta, and 2,083 are needed to win the nomination.

Gore, who is running third in the overall delegate count with 404.55, has the support of 33.55 super delegates, the AP said.

Simon, who suspended active campaigning after his fourth-place finish in Wisconsin, has 173.5 delegates, including 18.5 super delegates.

DELEGATES’ PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCES

Republicans

1,139 delegates needed to secure nomination

Bush: 922

Uncommitted: 222

Robertson: 17

Democrats

2,083 delegates needed to secure nomination

Dukakis: 816.15

Jackson: 715.1Gore: 404.55

Uncommitted: 474.75

Simon: 173.5Source: Associated Press