Washington – Saturday’s Louisiana Republican State Convention in Shreveport promises to be a political donnybrook for the ages. A fight pitting the Ron Paul forces against the rest of the party is likely to lead the convention to split into two competing meetings that will proceed to put together two, somewhat different Louisiana delegations to send the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August, and leaving it to the national GOP’s Contest Committee to sort it out.
The only question seems to be how soon after the convention convenes at 10 the breakup will occur and a rolling wall in the hall at the Shreveport Convention Center will unfold, turning one convention into two and separating the 111 Paul delegates, from the 69 Santorum, Romney and other delegates, including state Party Chair Roger Villere and the rest of the party leadership.
The conflict was set up by a bifurcated primary and caucus system, in which Rick Santorum, with 49 percent of the vote, followed by Mitt Romney, with 27 percent, dominated the March 24 primary, in which nearly 190,000 voters participated, while Ron Paul, who received only 6 percent in the primary, did very well in the very lightly attended April caucuses.
Under the party rules, Santorum was entitled to 10 delegates and Romney five, while Paul, whose caucus slates carried the day in four of the six new congressional districts, was guaranteed 12 delegates. Also, because most of the delegates to the state convention were selected in the caucuses, the Paul forces have enough strength to select the additional five delegates from the primary who were not assigned to either Santorum or Romney, bringing their total to 17 delegates. Altogether, Louisiana will send 46 delegates to Tampa.
At issue is whether the Paul majority should be able to decide which individuals get to go to Tampa as Santorum and Romney delegates.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/06/republican_state_convention_pr.html#incart_river
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