Louisiana held a caucus last night and I've been trying to make sense of it all morning.
There are conflicting reports that Ron Paul actually won it. NRO reported John McCain won it; only to take that back and say uncommitted "Pro-life/Pro-family" won.
The Louisiana presidential selection process, just like with everything in Louisiana electoral politics, is complicated.
The state convention will choose the bulk of Louisiana's delegates to the Republican National Convention. Louisiana will have a total of 47 delegates and 44 alternates to the national convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota...Fifteen delegates and fifteen alternates to the state convention will be elected [at the caucus] from each congressional district. Republican voters are eligible to vote in the congressional district where they were registered on November 30, 2007.
The state convention will be held Feb. 16 at the Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge. All of Louisiana's 2008 national convention delegates will be uncommitted. But if a presidential candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the Feb. 9 presidential primary, state party rules require 20 of Louisiana's at-large delegates to support that candidate on the first ballot of the national convention. If no presidential candidate receives a majority on Feb. 9, the at-large delegates will be uncommitted.
So Louisiana had a caucus last night to elect all the delegates to the state convention. However, there will also be a primary on Feb. 9 which, unless a candidate receives 50%+1, would be for all intents and purposes be a beauty contest. At the state convention, the delegates who were selected last night will in turn select the delegates to the national convention.
If Paul's supporters won enough delegates at the caucus last night; they could theoretically stage a coup at the state convention and elect their people to the national convention. In which case, they would stick with their candidate until the bitter end.
Lew Rockwell reports that all the delegates for the other candidates pooled together on a "Ronald Reagan" slate (see palm card to the right); or the uncommitted "Pro-Life, Pro-Family" that NRO reports won.
Thus, from what I can gather, this means that in order to prevent a Paul coup; the delegates of all the other candidates (the old guard who has worked to build the Republican Party of Louisiana) banded together on a slate where all of their preferred candidates combined embodies Ronald Reagan. And now when/if the slate sticks it through the state convention and goes to the national convention; they will just vote for their preferred candidates there.
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