By The Star Staff
The chairman of Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón’s gubernatorial campaign, Francisco Domenech, on Monday described the beginning of the new phase of the campaign, dubbed “En La Calle con Jenniffer,” as a resounding success, saying “it was demonstrated once again that the street is with Jenniffer.”
“She is the candidate who is with the people,” Domenech said. “This weekend, Jenniffer was in direct contact with thousands of people in the east and mountain areas where she visited public housing projects, communities and businesses, among other places.”
Once the phase of collecting early voting applications was completed, the campaign of the New Progressive Party (NPP) vice president pivoted over the weekend to its next “On the Street” phase. Along with her running mate, resident commissioner candidate Elmer Román, and candidates for the legislature and mayorships, the resident commissioner was in Morovis, Orocovis, Barranquitas, Naguabo, Ceiba, Fajardo and Luquillo.
The new campaign phase will not be limited to weekends, but will also be active on weekdays in order to impact the entire island, Domenech said. The aim, he added, is to mobilize every voter in Puerto Rico who wants a change to vote for Jenniffer González for governor in the NPP primary.
“On June 2, the November elections will be decided,” Domenech emphasized.
“The moment for [incumbent governor Pedro] Pierluisi to have reconsidered and avoided a primary was last September when I privately warned them about their political non-viability for the election,” said the González Colón campaign’s political director, Ángel Cintrón. “Instead of having done the right thing for the party and having given way to Jenniffer, as Rafael Hernández Colón, Sila Calderón and Alejandro García Padilla did in a mature PDP at the time, Pierluisi’s inner circle never told him the truth about his political weakness and kept him in this race unnecessarily. We already have the responsibility to compete to ensure that the NPP and Puerto Rico win on June 2 and November 5 with Jenniffer González and Captain Elmer Roman leading the winning ballot.”
“Today, Pierluisi’s team is making a call of total desperation, asking Jenniffer to remove herself 48 days before the primaries, because they know that we are going to win the primary event on June 2 by a landslide,” Domenech said. “A person who is sure that he will prevail is not asking for his opponent to be withdrawn. They show fear and desperation.”
The campaign’s electoral director, Aníbal Vega Borges, indicated that “the early vote, no matter who collected it, which were the volunteers of all the local candidates and volunteers of the party, those votes respond to the clamor of the people and will represent the same trend in favor of Jenniffer becoming our next governor.”
In the opposing primary camp, meanwhile, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia’s campaign director, Edwin Mundo Ríos, revealed the statistics of early voting requests from the NPP, which registered 90,775 requests.
Mundo asserted that “the process of requesting early voting carried out by Pedro Pierluisi’s campaign demonstrates, without a doubt, that he is the candidate who has the most support and the best structure to win the primary and the general election.”
The seasoned electoral veteran announced that, of the 90,775 applications registered, as of midday Monday, with the State Election Commission (SEC), a total of 63,078 applications -- or 69.49% -- were managed and delivered by Pierluisi’s electoral and campaign team. Mundo also revealed that González Colón’s campaign team submitted a total of 16,072 applications, or 17.70%.
Another 11,625 applications -- 12.81% -- were managed by voters through the electronic platform “eRe”, email, inmates, among others.
Mundo challenged the resident commissioner’s team to accept the result with only 90,775 voters, after former Toa Baja mayor Aníbal Vega Borges, a member of González’s team, spoke about collecting early voting requests.
“This way supporters of statehood will be able to see which campaign is lying and which team is best prepared to give the NPP an electoral victory in November,” Mundo said. “If you wish, we can also award the election with early voting. Thus, we save the people money and controversies for the party in an unnecessary primary.”