Lujambio's Future

Bajo Reserva considers some recent pushing and pulling between the Secretariat of Public Education and the SNTE, Mexico's teachers union:

Who benefits from the changes at the Secretariat of Education? Eight months after assuming his post, the secretary, Alonso Lujambio Irazábal, argues that now is the moment to enrich the deliberation of his team with regard to the reforms that are already on the way and decided to fire two high-ranking officials. It's clear that any cabinet secretary wants to work with people he trusts, nobody could question that. Nevertheless, it turns out that the two dismissed officials have something in common: they are not well regarded by the National Educational Worker Syndicate...It could be that Secretary Alonso Lujambio, who has requested that the PAN include his name as an active member of the party, doesn't manage to win the PAN's presidential candidacy in 2012, but if things continue as they have he will certainly land the candidacy of PANAL [the political party controlled by Gordillo].

I can't quite figure out why anyone who's got star potential in one of the major parties would want the PANAL nomination just because he came up short in a nomination that's a long shot anyway. Maybe I overestimate his potential to be a big player in the PAN for sexenios to come, but it seems like he'd be throwing that away for the outside chance of picking up five percent of the presidential vote.