Updated--10:30 am January 23, 2008
Updated--7:50 pm January 23, 2008
PLUS: Comments from Four Who Were There at the LA GOP Caucuses Last Night
complicated
adj.
1. Containing intricately combined or involved parts.
2. Not easy to understand or analyze.
3. Louisiana Republican Caucus process.
The Louisiana Republican Party Caucuses are not an easy thing--either to report or to make sense of.
UPDATE: 7:50 pm January 23, 2008 Wednesday From National Review: ...candidates for delegate in Louisiana historically have run on one or another slate, but not on multiple slates. This year, however, many candidates ran on more than one slate. There was significant overlap, for example, between the McCain and Pro-Life slates. So determination of which slate won is not as clear-cut. But it certainly appears that the order was: Uncommitted Pro-Life, McCain, Paul, Romney, others. --Louisiana Results Clarified So, basically, we know about as much now as we did this morning when this was first written--about 15 hours ago. UPDATE: 10:30 am January 23, 2008 Wednesday From the Shreveport Times: GOP Releases Unofficial Results Nearly 10,000 Louisiana Republicans voted for delegates and alternate delegates to the 2008 Louisiana Republican Convention at caucuses throughout the state on Tuesday. The Congressional District 4 caucus — which encompasses Caddo, Bossier, Webster, Claiborne, Bienville, DeSoto and Red River parishes — was held at the CenturyTel Center in Bossier City. Not a lot there, apparently most of the delegates are committed to a slate of the other four candidates. Quick analysis from Lew Rockwell on this development: Ronald Reagan Wins Louisiana Caucus 1. The coalition delegate slate will be split 4 ways at the state convention, and Paul may have more than any one candidate. 2. Paul supposedly has most of the alternate delegate slots, most of which were uncontested. So if somebody doesn't show up or is ruled ineligible, a Paul delegate can step up. 3. If half of Paul's supporters did indeed cast provisional ballots, these results from the Shreveport times are utterly meaningless. So, even though results are in, you probably know only slightly more now than when this post was written at 4:30 am this morning. UPDATE: Some comments by delegates who were at the various GOP caucuses. In congressional district 1 it looked like there was divided support between Ron Paul and Mitt ROB-ney...or was that RONALD REAGAN? I swear, one of the voting sheets had "Vote one for the Gipper" and had Nancy and Ronald Reagan on it with the delegates names--and not the mystery candidate. I guess this clown is ashamed to put his name on there and has to try to ride in on the coat-tails of a dead president? Don't know who was passing those out, but we saved one. (If someone does know who had the "Gipper" delegates, please DO tell! Is Reagan on the ballot in Louisiana??? Same here in Lafayette, District 7. At the Lake Charles caucus, Ron Paul supporters far outnumbered everyone else by a large percentage. The only other candidate with even a table was Mitt Romney and I counted only 2 or 3 Mitt supporters while I was there. I'm in District 7, Lafayette caucus. I was delegate #57 on the ballot, on the Ron Paul ticket. We'll supply updates as we get them. Thanx Everyone for the news! This is better than AP! |
We thoroughly scoured both the web and print sources and the following is what we learned: not a lot--yet.
The Louisiana Republican Party held caucuses at 11 sites across the state yesterday to select delegates to a state convention at which Louisiana's GOP convention delegates will be determined.
The Louisiana caucuses are so complicated that no one is reporting on it.
We'll take a stab.
There are no reported results--as of the moment--but the results should be announced sometime later this morning. The results will be difficult to interpret in any event.
The following was one of the best explanations of the complicated process that we have found.
Here's how Louisiana's caucus works (I think): The attendees at the 11 caucus sites voted on delegates to the statewide convention. Those delegates are nominally "uncommitted." But if a majority of attendees at a caucus site were, for example, Ron Paul supporters, they would vote for delegates who, in turn, will support Paul.
But that process only accounts for about half the La. delegates to the GOP national convention. The remaining delegates--those who are "at large" or "bonus" delegates--will be selected at the state convention; if someone gets 50% of the vote in a "beauty contest" primary on Feb. 9, then he gets that second tranch of delegates; otherwise, they're also nominally uncommitted.
At this moment, the only reporting is of rumors. An example:
We have heard a rumor that in Natchitoches Ron Paul won 11 of the 15 Delegates and that there were less than 100 people at some sites, some Ron Paul supporters are saying “Dr. Paul must be doing well, since I haven’t seen anything about it on the so called news channels”.And another rumor:
But so far the only thing we could find was from a Ron Paul supporter who stated that the Paulies had a majority of the turnout at the Lake Charles caucus site.And that's it: only a couple of rumors. Expect no more information for at least another 3 1/2 hours, at best.
Probably closer to 10 am EST would be a better guess.
And, as a tribute to tone-deaf politicians everywhere, the following quote is presented.
In any event, it looks like Loosianans will be ignored, despite this amusing quote from Roger Villere, the chairman of the La. Republican Party, earlier this month: “We’re excited about the upcoming caucuses. I believe this system will allow Louisiana Republicans to have a strong impact on the election of the next President of the United States.”
The Louisiana GOP caucus process does seem to reward grass roots effort and that seems to be a strength of the Ron Paul Louisiana campaign effort.
Ron Paul campaigned in Louisiana yesterday and from all reports, was one of the few Republican candidates to do so.
Paul supporters, also going on published accounts, appear to have effectively mobilized in the Bayou State and turned out for the Texas Congressman. From these early rumored reports, Paul could come away with enough delegates to finish either first or second.
And that's good news for a campaign whose biggest obstacle to this point has been national name recognition.
After searching the Internet, this is the sum of what is known at 4:40 am Wednesday morning January 23, 2008.
That's not so much, huh? Two rumors and many promises that the results will be released later this morning--honest.
UPDATE at 7:32 am January 23, 2008 The following comment was left on this story: In congressional district 1 it looked like there was divided support between Ron Paul and Mitt ROB-ney...or was that RONALD REAGAN? I swear, one of the voting sheets had "Vote one for the Gipper" and had Nancy and Ronald Reagan on it with the delegates names--and not the mystery candidate. I guess this clown is ashamed to put his name on there and has to try to ride in on the coat-tails of a dead president? Don't know who was passing those out, but we saved one. (If someone does know who had the "Gipper" delegates, please DO tell! Is Reagan on the ballot in Louisiana??? That's two rumors and one eye-witness. |
by Mondoreb
image: salon]
Sources:
* Louisiana GOP Caucus Results
* Positive for Ron Paul in the Louisiana Caucus Results
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