Monday, August 1, 2011

Cocoa's the one: President Calderón's sister wins party primary in Michoacán

Luisa María Calderón Hinojosa, "Cocoa," won PAN's primary election in Michoacán to be the party's gubernatorial candidate, with 58 percent of the 25,757 votes cast. Her opponent, Senator Marko Cortés Mendoza, has accepted the defeat - despite some alarmist suggestions that he would cause quite a bit of mayhem and claim a fraud.

Quite the contrary - Cortés said he would fully back Cocoa. His loss is also a defeat for Santiago Creel, who openly backed his aspirations against those of the president's sister.

With her candidacy, the November Michoacán election looks even more set to be a completely open three-way race. Quite likely, PRI and PRD will denounce "nepotism," and accuse Calderón, fairly or not, of intervening in the local election.

Clearly she has every right to participate. But voters should also bear in mind that she is also a woman who does not stick to her word:  She is openly breaking an earlier agreement from 2006 that no family member would be in the public as long as Felipe was president. That was then; this is now - but it was clearly a lie.

PRI has said that a victory Michoacán is essential for the party on its path to 2012: Its leader said he will literally not leave the state until the election.  So it is, of course, for the PRD, as the state might be considered the party's cradle. But finally, also to the PAN, and not only for the above: It won its first municipal president (Quiroga), first local deputy, and first national deputy there, eons ago.

This will be a very dramatic - and competitive - affair.

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