New Progressive Party primaries, 2008

← 2003 March 9, 2008 2012 →

Nominee Luis Fortuño Pedro Rosselló Party New Progressive New Progressive Alliance Republican Democratic Popular vote 445,026 306,590 Percentage 59.21% 40.79%

New Progressive Party results for Governor. Light blue denotes a Fortuño win and navy blue a Rosselló win.

Previous PNP Governor candidate Pedro Rosselló PNP Governor candidate-elect Luis Fortuño

Politics of Puerto Rico
Constitution andlaw United States Constitution Puerto Rico Constitution Puerto Rico law
Executive Governor Cabinet Chief of Staff Executive departments Fiscal agent and financing Government-owned corporations Line of succession Office of the Governor Transition process First Lady
Legislative Legislature:17th Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico Senate:26th Senate of Puerto Rico President of the Senate:Thomas Rivera Schatz President pro tempore:Larry Seilhamer Rodríguez Majority Leader:Carmelo Ríos Santiago Majority Whip:Ángel Chayanne Martínez Minority Leader:Eduardo Bhatia;Juan Dalmau;Vargas Vidot Minority Whip:José Luis Dalmau House of Representatives:30th House of Representatives of Puerto Rico Speaker:Johnny Méndez Speaker pro tempore:José Torres Zamora Majority Leader:Gabriel Rodríguez Aguiló Majority Whip:Urayoán Hernández Minority Leader:Tatito Hernández Minority Whip:Ramón Luis Cruz
Judicial Supreme Court
Elections Elections Political parties New Progressive Party Popular Democratic Party Puerto Rican Independence Party Citizen's Victory Movement Proyect Dignity Political party strength
Municipalities Mayors in Puerto Rico Municipalities of Puerto Rico
Federal relations Federal representation United States House of Representatives Resident commissioner of Puerto Rico Jenniffer González-Colón (PNP,R) Insular Cases
Political status Current status Proposed political status Sovereigntism Independence Statehood Status quo
Politics of the United States Politics portal
v t e

The2008 New Progressive Party primaries were theprimary elections by which voters of theNew Progressive Party (PNP) chose its nominees for various political offices of Puerto Rico, namely the position ofgovernor, for the2008 general elections.Resident CommissionerLuis Fortuño was selected as the nominee at the primary elections held on March 9, 2008. He would go on to win the2008 general election as well.

Pedro Rosselló had come from a defeat againstAníbal Acevedo Vilá at the2004 elections. Despite that, he managed to gain a seat in theSenate. After an unsuccessful power struggle within the Senate to gain the presidency of the body, it was speculated that Rosselló would make another attempt at being elected Governor for the 2008 elections.

The power struggle had caused a division within the party, with the faction that supported Senate PresidentKenneth McClintock (called the "Auténticos") being expelled from the party during the previous year. Although the Supreme Court allowed them to run in the PNP primaries,Pedro Rosselló, then President of the party, still vouched for a "vote of punishment" against the senators, which he called "traitors".^[1]

• Luis Fortuño, incumbentResident Commissioner of Puerto Rico
• Pedro Rosselló, incumbentSenator and formerGovernor of Puerto Rico

• Pedro Pierluisi, former Secretary of Justice
• Charlie Rodríguez, former President of theSenate of Puerto Rico
• Miriam Ramírez de Ferrer, former Senator

• 
  Pedro Pierluisi
• 
  Charlie Rodríguez
• 
  Miriam Ramírez de Ferrer

The New Progressive Party held primaries on all 8 of thesenatorial districts.

The Popular Democratic Party held primaries on 30 of the40 representative districts.

The New Progressive Party held primaries in 34 of 78 municipalities.

Aguada [edit] "Berty" Echevarría Manuel Santiago Lorenzo Vale, Jr. Aguas Buenas [edit] Miguel Edwin Morales Vitín Ramos Arecibo [edit] Carlos Molina Angel "Kuko" Ramos Lemuel Soto Arroyo [edit] Darwin Covas Basilio Figueroa Ramón Morales Caguas [edit] Orlando Rivera Carlos González Camuy [edit] Edwin García Feliciano Johnny Canóvanas [edit] Roberto Cruz Manuel Quiñones José "Chemo" Soto Cataño [edit] Julio Alicea Mayra Ramsamy Wilson Soto Yareco Cayey [edit] Wilson Colón Benjamín González Ceiba [edit] Pedro Colón Osorio Angelo Cruz Ramos Corozal [edit] Roberto Hernández Vélez Norberto Torres Florida [edit] Aaron Pargas Ojeda Víctor M. Rodríguez Guaynabo [edit] Héctor O'Neill Miguel Gutarra Humacao [edit] "Piloto" Santiago Maritza Vargas Juana Díaz [edit] Gardy Guzmán Nilsa Santiago Juncos [edit] Junito Mulero Karen Velázquez Lajas [edit] Leo Cotte Edgardo Johnny Ramos

Lares [edit] Roberto Pagán Centeno Eddie Nuñez Las Piedras [edit] Micky López Angel R. Peña Loíza [edit] Luis Ambrosio de Jesús Eddie Manso Luquillo [edit] José "Nelo" González Rafa Pérez Morovis [edit] Norberto Negrón Heriberto Rodríguez Patillas [edit] Benjamín Cintrón Lebrón Maritza Rivera Ponce [edit] Angel Llavona María "Mayita" Meléndez Quebradillas [edit] Moisés Soto Elías Nieves Rincón [edit] María Lourdes Méndez Eddie Ríos Río Grande [edit] César María Milagros Charbonier Javier Sánchez Sabana Grande [edit] Wilfrido Bonilla Santitos Rivera Linnette Toledo Salinas [edit] Ernesto Aponte Jorgito Díaz Carlos Rodríguez Mateo San Germán [edit] Mónica Alpi Luis Cancel Efraín Montalvo Edgardo Suárez San Sebastián [edit] Javier Jiménez Justo Medina Toa Alta [edit] Luis Collazo Rivera Nelson Evelyn Ortega Trujillo Alto [edit] Julio Andino Emmanuel Huertas Eduardo Otero Utuado [edit] Alan González Cancel Jorgito Pérez

The primaries were held on March 9, 2008. In it,Fortuño comfortably defeatedRosselló to win the spot for Governor at the 2008 elections.^[2] Also,Pedro Pierluisi defeatedCharlie Rodríguez andMiriam Ramírez de Ferrer with 60% of the votes to win the spot for Resident Commissioner.^[3]

During and after the primaries, members of theNew Progressive Party (PNP), like SenatorNorma Burgos, claimed they saw voters affiliated with the opposingPopular Democratic Party (PPD) voting in the PNP ballots.^[4] Also, Maritza Vázquez, Electoral Commissioner of PPD representative Conny Varela, admitted in 2010 that "thousands of 'populares' voted on that election'".^[5] Some of the supporters of Rosselló maintain that this "crossover" was crucial inPedro Rosselló's defeat againstLuis Fortuño.

As a result of Rosselló's loss in the primaries, a group of his supporters started a campaign to have him elected through "Write-in" voting.

Despite Rosselló's call for a "vote of punishment" against the "Auténticos", all but one of the eligible candidates from that faction were elected in the primaries.Carlos Díaz was edged out of the election race by SenatorsRoberto Arango andKimmey Raschke.Migdalia Padilla,Lucy Arce, andJorge de Castro Font were all elected.Kenneth McClintock had decided not to run for Senate, whileOrlando Parga refused to return to the party after his expulsion, and started an independent campaign.

• Popular Democratic Party primaries, 2008

• Primary elections in Puerto Rico
• 2008 Puerto Rico elections
• New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico)

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use American English from March 2019
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Use mdy dates from March 2019