Even when he’s winning, Haile Rivera can’t catch a break. Last week, after helping presidential candidate Barack Obama destroy rival Hillary Clinton in the pivotal North Carolina Democratic primary, Rivera’s rental car blew a tire.

Eventually, Rivera would make it home to the Bronx for a pit stop before moving on to Puerto Rico, for the next round of primaries. Still, nothing comes easy these days for Rivera, a University Heights resident who gave up a relatively comfortable life in the Bronx two months ago to go on the road working for peanuts as a political foot soldier for the Obama campaign.

“It’s tough man,” Rivera said from his cell phone last Wednesday while waiting for a Raleigh, N.C. mechanic to call him back. “I miss my life. I miss the Bronx. I miss my girl and looking out our apartment window at Bronx Community College. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s something I believe in.”

The “it” he’s referring to is the front-running presidential campaign of Barack Obama, a junior senator from Chicago whose message of change resonates with Rivera.

You see, Rivera (no relation to the Bronx Democratic boss and Assemblyman Jose Rivera or his political offspring, Joel and Naomi), is outspoken, to the chagrin of the local political establishment, about the need for change in Bronx political culture. He’s running for Maria Baez’s soon-to-be-vacant City Council seat (14th District) because he says he wants to change the Bronx’s reputation for secrecy and corruption.

He denounced Baez the other day for not saying why she had missed a third of her scheduled meetings and hearings.

Just to let people back home know he hadn’t fallen off the face of the earth, he sent out a mass e-mail on Tuesday saying, “I believe that the time has come to step up to the plate and give my neighbors the opportunity to elect a new kind of leadership. Call it new blood or something else. I call it CHANGE!”

There’s still a long way until the 2009 Council race starts heating up, so Rivera is using this opportunity working for team Obama to hone his campaign skills.

Rivera says he first discovered Obama several years ago when the fledgling politician was just a state senator in Illinois and he’s been following his meteoric rise ever since. Last summer, Rivera sent a $25 donation to his presidential campaign and won an intimate dinner with Obama in Washington, D.C. After dinner, Rivera was convinced Obama was the right man to run the country.

As campaign season kicked into high gear, Rivera, who operates his own tiny nonprofit organization when he has time (Hands on New York gave out 200 turkeys last Thanksgiving), gradually became more involved as a volunteer, even turning his mini-van into an Obama-mobile as the New York primary approached.

Though Clinton trounced Obama in the Empire State and the Bronx (with the help of heavy political support), Rivera was undeterred and began helping out the campaign in other states.

With campaigning taking up much of his spare time (and some work hours), Rivera chose to quit his beloved job with the nonprofit New York Food Bank and join the Obama campaign full-time as field organizer in Philadelphia. Obama did well in Philly, but lost Pennsylvania.

Despite the low pay and long hours, Rivera remained firmly committed and continued on to North Carolina. “We invest more than what we get out of it,” Rivera said after the Pennsylvania primary. “But we’ve got an opportunity to make history here, so it’s hopefully going to work out. You’ve really got love it and be committed to do it.”

His colleague in Philadelphia, Joan Kato, was impressed. “Haile’s a great guy, a hard worker, and does what’s needed to get Obama elected.”

The hardest part for Rivera is being away from his girlfriend (and campaign manager) Cossette Morillo, whom he calls his “partner.” And vice versa. Morillo took bus trips to Philly and Raleigh to be with Rivera every weekend. They spent time together mostly working on the campaign.

“I gotta tell you, it’s really tough,” Morillo says about the distance. “I come home at night and just go to bed. I miss cooking him dinner. But it’s what he loves to do and it’s a great opportunity for him. This is what he wants to do.”

She’s already booked her flights to Puerto Rico.