PAN Missteps

Jorge Fernández Menéndez says the the rollout of Luis Felipe Bravo Mena's campaign for governor in Mexico State left a lot to be desired:

For some strange reason, the team of Luis Felipe Bravo Mena didn't want to begin midnight on Monday, as Eruivel did, nor did they want a demonstration of partisan support, like Encinas. In the PAN they decided that they wouldn't do virtually anything. To start, they had an event in the morning where Santiago Creel appeared (and where they suggested to the senator that he not speak), with a formal beginning to the campaign later, in the Mazahua zone. Josefina Vázquez Mota, who has support above all in those indigenous groups, was there, but the party leadership was not. Why? Because the president of the PAN, Gustavo Madero, had called a meeting of the Executive Committee that afternoon in the party offices in DF and it didn't seem a good idea to change the date of the meeting or, better yet, make it a party of the event for the kickoff of his candidate's campaign in Mexico State. Not a single national leader of the PAN went to the event.

[Break]

It will be difficult for the PAN or the PRD to catch up with Eruviel, but conducting a good campaign in Mexico State is vital, first, for the internal campaigns of the parties (and the perredista aspirants have understood this very well and the majority of the panistas have ignored it) and second, it is a key election for positioning ahead of 2012. And maybe in the PAN, above all, they have other worries, but the Edomex campaign doesn't seem to be on their radarm and thy descided to start without their party leader, without their national leaders, and without their precandidates for the presidency. Maybe they think they have a 30-point advantage to conserve until July 3.

They don't, of course. The PAN really feels rudderless right now. They are probably in better shape than the PRD, but at least in the latter party, there is a fight between two extremes for control of the party, and when and if a winner is decisively determined, the party can begin to rebuild itself as a coherent national force. Right now, no one seems to be struggling for control of the PAN; it just seems like it is slogging along.