Jerry Ortiz y Pino
Democratic Lt. Gov. candidate Jerry Ortiz y Pino says he’s staying in the race even though he didn’t get 20 percent at the party’s preprimary nominating convention on Saturday.
“I am not at all discouraged by this hurdle,” Ortiz y Pino wrote in an e-mail to supporters.
Ortiz y Pino wrote that a “race this close in the mainstream Democratic Party convention…. is simply reinforcing the basic idea that we began this campaign with.”
“That thought was that this year provides a great opportunity to mobilize progressive voters and to recapture the Democratic Party for its base: the working families of this state,” the e-mail states.
Brian Colón finished first at the convention with the votes of 34.54 percent of delegates. Lawrence Rael finished second at 22.15 percent, while Joe Campos finished with 19.69 percent, Ortiz y Pino finished with 18.87 percent, and Linda Lopez finished with 4.73 percent.
By law, those who fail to get 20 percent at the convention have to collect twice as many signatures as those who do get 20 percent if they want to appear on the ballot. And no candidate who has failed the organizational test of getting 20 percent at the convention has gone on to win the primary.
Campos and Lopez haven’t yet responded to e-mails asking whether they are staying in the race.