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By Chris Covert
Josefina Vazquez Mota has won the nationwide internal primary for Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), according to a late Sunday Tweet by PAN president Gustavo Madero Munoz.
The race came down to Maestra Vazquez Mota, former treasury secretary under Felipe Calderon Ernesto Cordero and Chihuahua senator Santigo Creel.
With 89 percent of the vote counted, Vazquez Mota won handily with 237,154 votes or 54.6 percent of the total. Cordero, who was backed by Calderon, came in second with 166,995. Creel came in a distant third with 26,225 votes.
"We already have a candidate," tweeted Madero Sunday night.
Vazquez Mota has been the frontrunner for the PAN nomination since she announced her intention to run for president of the republic last fall. She is a former federal deputy for Nuevo Leon state and has been something of a political fixer for Calderon. She has served in both the Vicente Fox and Calderon administrations. She is an economist by trade.
The PAN vote is strictly internal. The PAN leadership in the form of Madero and internal governing bodies, are expected to confer about the result and decide on the candidate who will register in March.
If Vazquez Mota is selected as the PAN candidate, she will be the first female to run for president in Mexico's history.
Despite her apparent popularity, current polls have her behind the likely frontrunner for Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) candidate Enrique Pena Nieto by almost two to one in the latest poll. Partido Revolucion Democratica, Mexico's leftist mainstream party candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is a close third.
Mexican presidential elections are very difficult to handicap. In 2006, both Calderon and Lope Obrador were second to PRI candidate Roberto Madrazo, but went on to end the race each within less than one percentage point of the other.
The PAN and PRI candidates are weak politicians. While Pena Nieto has experience as governor of Mexico state, he is widely considered a telegenic fool and an empty suit given to gaffes. For example, when asked last fall about the price of a kilogram of tortillas, he guessed incorrectly, then compounded his error by saying his wife, telenovella actress Angelica Rivera does the shopping for the family. Pena Nieto did not know the price of a ride on Mexico City's metro line as well.
The problem is that Vazquez Mota also did not know the answer to either question, nor did Lopoz Obrador.
While Lopez Obrador holds the mantle of a modern Mexican leftist he is nonetheless as much a yuppie as his rivals.