Louisiana Win Edges Paul Closer to Getting Name in Nomination
Writes The Times-Picayune’s Jonathan Tilove:
Ron Paul’s sweeping victory in Saturday’s Republican Party caucuses in Louisiana was the latest in a series of guerilla caucus-state coups by the outsider campaign that may ultimately give him command of enough state delegations to place his name in nomination at the national convention in Tampa. The struggle to wrest control of the Louisiana delegation could also make the party’s June 2 state convention in Shreveport, at which the delegates to the national convention will be chosen, an interesting affair.
Saturday’s results, in which delegates backing the Texas congressman won all the spots in four of the state’s six new congressional districts, vindicated the campaign’s decision to largely forego the high-profile, low-stakes March 24 primary for the low-profile, higher-stakes caucuses. The Paul victory also confounded a state party that had devised a system for electing delegates to the 2012 convention so complicated it seemed designed to keep power in the hands of party insiders.
“Well, the cat is out of the bag,” Doug Wead, a senior adviser to the Paul campaign wrote on his blog after Saturday’s results were in. “Another state, another unseen victory for the Texas congressman. And, it should be noted, another embarrassment for the apparent nominee, former Governor Mitt Romney. Now, the question is this. How many other states have their own surprises coming?”
The Louisiana result comes amid strong showings by the Paul campaign in the sometimes still ongoing delegate selection processes in Iowa, Minnesota, Washington State, Alaska and even Mitt Romney’s home state of Massachusetts.
Under party rules, a candidate for president “shall demonstrate the support of a plurality of the delegates from each of five or more states, severally, prior to the presentation of the name of that candidate for nomination.”
The Paul campaign would appear to be on the cusp of reaching that threshold.
