This is a very intriguing possibility and Governor Fortuno has bona fide budget-cutting credentials.
How would that work? He’d have to move to the mainland to be able to vote for himself, wouldn’t he? It is my understanding that PRs are US citizens, but they can vote only if they live in the US.
Luis Fortuño is very pro-life, has cut some spending and lowered income taxes, but he is hardly the second coming of Ronald Reagan that many conservative pundits are so willing to annoint him as. Throw in the fact that his home state has 0 electoral votes and that he wouldn’t even be able to vote for the presidential ticket, and the pick would make even less sense. Yes, there are a lot of Puerto Ricans in Central Florida that grew up in Puerto Rico and still have close ties to the Island, but probably close to half of them are from the “pro-Commonwealth” Popular Democratic Party in Puerto Rico politics and thus would not be very motivated to vote for a ticket with Fortuño (who is a Republican, but locally is a member of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party. And Fortuño would have even more limited appeal to non-Puerto Rican Hispanics.
If the GOP presidential nominee wants a Hispanic runningmate, FL Senator Marco Rubio (who is Cuban-American) and NM Governor Susana Martinez (who is Mexican-American) would be exponentially better picks. As I recently posted, though, since our nominee will almost certainly be either a Mormon (Romney) or a Catholic (Santorum), I don’t think that Catholics such as Rubio or Martinez (or Fortuño, for that matter) would be such good selections.
Didn’t Fortuño endorse Obamacare? That pretty much kills any chance he has of earning my endorsement, like after Thune showed his true colors by joining the Bolton lynch mob and Connie Mack IV made his “Gepstapo” comment about Arizona legislators. No thanks.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2477012/posts
Besides, if we’re gonna have a hispanic running mate, I’d prefer one from a place that doesn’t have 0 electoral votes. Rick Santorum / Susana Martinez is still my ideal ticket.