Republican candidates watch Puerto Rico, look down the road

Posted by admin American Politics Sunday, March 18th, 2012

Mitt Romney attends a New Progressive Party ally Friday in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN) — Puerto Ricans have their say in the Republican presidential nominating contests Sunday while the top two candidates are already down the road, campaigning for upcoming contests.

Front-runner Mitt Romney will spend Sunday in Illinois, which votes Tuesday and where polls show him with a small lead. Rival Rick Santorum is in Louisiana, where he is expected to win the primary there on Saturday.

In Puerto Rico, 20 delegates are up for grabs. Romney is the favorite, having the backing of the U.S. territory’s political establishment, including Gov. Luis Fortuno, who endorsed the former Massachusetts governor and appeared with him as he campaigned on Friday and Saturday.

But as an indication of how important every delegate is in this tumultuous campaign, Santorum campaigned on the island Wednesday and Thursday. If Romney gets more than 50% of the vote, he’ll win all 20 delegates; if Santorum can keep him under that, the delegates will be awarded proportional to the vote.

CNN’s latest delegate estimates show Romney with 498 delegates to Santorum’s 239. Newt Gingrich is 100 delegates behind Santorum, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian champion, won 69 delegates. To secure the nomination, 1,144 delegates are needed.

Romney’s trip to the island included a raucous rally Friday night that featured hours of upbeat music and dancing, including some local politicians onstage, that built up to Romney’s keynote speech.

“What a beautiful island. What a beautiful place,” exclaimed Romney, who did not dance but clapped to the beat as he sat on stage for almost two hours. “What a wonderful culture you enjoy. What a wonderful people you are. Citizens of this great land. Citizens of America!”

Asked Saturday about his chances in the primary, Romney cited the Friday evening rally, saying it “couldn’t have been more fun and more encouraging” and made him “cautiously optimistic that we’re going to do well in Puerto Rico.”

Santorum created a small political firestorm on the island on when he said that English should be the principal language in Puerto Rico before it could gain statehood. Puerto Rico will vote on a statehood referendum in November.

Romney’s campaign contrasted its position the following day, with spokeswoman Andrea Saul saying Romney “would not, as a prerequisite for statehood, require that the people of Puerto Rico cease using Spanish.”

But at CNN’s debate ahead of Florida’s primary in January, Romney said that English should be the nation’s official language.

After arriving in Puerto Rico on Friday, Romney said he would have “no preconditions” on language for Puerto Rico to gain statehood.

Minutes later, Santorum deputy communications director Matt Beynon tweeted, “So Romney once supported English as national language, then goes to Puerto Rico and says no language req on statehood. #FlipFlop? #Pander?”

Santorum’s communications director, Hogan Gidley, noted broad support for English as the nation’s official language and said in an e-mail to reporters, “How can Romney say he supports English as the official language of America and not believe Puerto Rico should speak English? If he’ll spend the whole election being untruthful about his positions — it makes you wonder what else he’s being untruthful about.”

But Saul responded, “Gov. Romney supports making English the official language of the United States government. This should have no impact on Puerto Rico’s statehood effort. English has been an official language of Puerto Rico for over 100 years.”

Puerto Rico’s primary comes two days before the showdown in Illinois, where 54 delegates will be awarded proportionally and polls show a tight race between Romney and Santorum.

Asked Saturday while campaigning in Missouri about whether a win in Illinois would mean he’d win the nomination, Santorum replied, “We feel very, very good about it. Let’s put it that way. Really good about it.”

Both Santorum and Romney focused most of their rhetoric at President Barack Obama, mostly on high gas prices.

Romney said that Obama needed to fire Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for their part in driving up gas prices.

“Given the fact that (Obama has) changed his policies, wants lower gas prices, he needs to fire them and return to the energy policies we need,” Romney told a town hall meeting in Collinsville, Illinois.

Santorum told a crowd in Effingham, Illinois, to remember Obama at the gas pumps.

“When you see that zero come up, when it gets to the 100-dollar range, when you see the zero think of ‘O’ for Obama because that’s why you are paying that extra amount of money.”

But Santorum also challenged Romney’s assertion that his business experience is one of his strongest credentials, telling CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union” on Sunday that, “If Governor Romney thinks that he is the CEO of America and can run and manage the economy, he doesn’t understand what conservatives believe in.”

Romney’s campaign released an ad in Illinois on Friday, attacking Santorum for having “never run a business or a state.”

Santorum on Sunday said he had experience in the private sector as a lawyer, but argued that executive experience at a company is not necessary to be commander-in-chief.

“Running a business is not the same as being president of the United States.”

Santorum also gave no indication that he has plans to drop out of the race should his campaign reach a point where the delegate math doesn’t add up in his favor.

“What I’m hearing is that we want a conservative nominee, that the establishment is trying to push a moderate like they did in 1976 against Ronald Reagan, like they did in 1996 with Bob Dole and what they did with John McCain,” Santorum said. “I think conservatives would like an opportunity to nominate a conservative, and that’s an opportunity.”

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