Clinton Wins Big In Puerto Rico--Loses Small Overall

By Nicholas Johnston and Kim Chipman

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Hillary Clinton won the Puerto Rico primary and vowed to continue her fight for the Democratic presidential nomination even as Barack Obama moved closer to securing enough delegates to seal victory.

Clinton had more than a 2-1 advantage with 91 percent of precincts reporting. The New York senator picked up 28 of Puerto Rico's delegates to 14 for Obama with 13 yet to be allocated, the Associated Press reported.

Sounding a note of resolve, Clinton said today's results strengthened her case to party leaders that she should be the nominee because she is winning in the popular vote. The Clinton campaign's calculations include disputed results from Florida, where neither candidate campaigned, and Michigan, where Obama wasn't on the ballot.

``We are winning the popular vote,'' Clinton told her supporters in San Juan. ``Now there can be no doubt.''

The partial results today put Obama just 51 delegates short of the 2,118 needed to clinch the nomination. He now has 2,067 delegates to Clinton's 1,907 -- including pledged delegates and so-called superdelegates drawn from party leaders and lawmakers who aren't bound by the voters' preferences. Obama added two of those superdelegates to his total today.

Offering Congratulations

Obama, speaking at a rally in Mitchell, South Dakota, said he called Clinton to congratulate her. The Illinois senator told the crowd of about 2,000 that the Democrats would be able to put their differences aside in time for the general election.

Clinton ``is going to be a great asset when we go on to November to make sure we defeat the Republicans,'' Obama, 46, said.

Obama's communications director, Robert Gibbs, said on the ABC's ``This Week'' today that his candidate may seal the nomination after the contests two days from now in South Dakota and Montana, which together have 31 delegates.

``I think sometime this week, we'll probably have a nominee for the Democratic Party,'' Gibbs said.

CNN projected the turnout in Puerto Rico would be between 325,000 and 425,000 voters, a fraction of what Clinton supporters had sought to boost her claim that she is winning the popular vote.

Clinton spent the past two weekends campaigning on the Caribbean island of 4 million people, while Obama focused his attention elsewhere, anticipating a general election race against Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona.

Holding the Lead

Clinton nibbled into Obama's delegate lead yesterday as Democratic Party officials adopted a compromise aimed at settling a dispute over seating Michigan and Florida delegations. The Democrats hold their convention in Denver in August to anoint their presidential nominee.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and other party leaders are urging the superdelegates to make a choice once the nominating contests are concluded.

In South Dakota and Montana, the Clinton campaign began airing television advertisements trumpeting her as the candidate who has won more votes than ``any primary candidate in history.''

17 Million Votes

``Some say there isn't a single reason for Hillary to be the Democratic nominee,'' the commercial says. ``They're right. There are over 17 million of them.'' The Clinton campaign said she has received more than 17 million votes nationwide in all nominating contests.

Clinton, 60, tonight flies to South Dakota, where she has three campaign stops tomorrow.
While campaigning in South Dakota today, Obama spoke with veterans and their families at a pancake breakfast in Sioux Falls, focusing on attacking McCain for his support of Republican President George W. Bush's veterans policies.

Puerto Rico's residents, on three islands about 1,000 miles southeast of Florida, are U.S. citizens who can vote in nominating contests but not in the general election. They also have no voting representatives in the U.S. House or Senate.

Island Voters

Both Clinton and Obama pledged to solve the issue of Puerto Rico's representation by letting island voters decide on independence or statehood.

A party committee yesterday voted to seat delegations from Michigan and Florida at the convention, though with only a half vote for each delegate. The party had previously stripped the states of their delegates for ignoring the party's primary schedule.

Clinton aides today criticized the accord, particularly the allocation of delegates in Michigan, where Clinton appeared on the ballot without Obama. Clinton adviser Harold Ickes said on CNN's ``Late Edition'' that the committee ``reached out and hijacked four delegates won by Hillary Clinton and gave them to Barack Obama.''

The panel voted 19-8 to seat the Michigan delegation, giving Clinton 34.5 delegate votes and Obama 29.5.

Donna Brazile, a committee member who was Vice President Al Gore's campaign manager in 2000, said on CNN today that the panel would have supported an even split of the Michigan delegation and that Obama conceded delegates in the hope of reaching consensus. She said the Clinton team, by contrast, made ``no gesture'' toward compromise.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nicholas Johnston in San Juan, Puerto Rico at njohnston3@bloomberg.net