Clinton, Bush Win Puerto Rico

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton on Sunday won the Democratic primary in Puerto Rico by an overwhelming margin over former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. On the GOP side, Patrick J. Buchanan’s challenge to President Bush barely registered as Bush scored a huge victory.

With nearly all the 1,779 precincts reporting, Clinton had 60,572 votes, or 96%. Brown won 1,010, or 2%, and other candidates shared the rest.

On the Republican side, with nearly all the returns in, Bush had 251,521 votes, or 99%. Buchanan, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and an uncommitted slate shared the remainder.

Clinton had the strong support of the island’s Democratic leadership and supported tax breaks for companies that form the commonwealth’s industrial base.

Because the primary requires a candidate to win at least 15% of the vote to claim delegates, Clinton stood to gain all 51 Democratic delegates.

Brown dismissed the results, saying: “Puerto Rico is run by the party hierarchy. We can’t compete there. We’re an insurgent campaign.”

The island’s Republican leader, former Gov. Luis Ferre, had urged a large turnout to show GOP leaders in Washington, D.C., that they would have nothing to fear politically from a Puerto Rican state. Ferre is a close friend of Bush, who has publicly advocated statehood.