Regardless of the results from the Florida primary, the three main Republican presidential contenders say they are in it for the long haul. If so, Louisiana, the 30th state to vote, could still matter when its March 24 primary is held. With Louisiana holding the only primary on that date, the attention of the candidates and their free-spending super PACs should make all Republicans in the state feel that their vote really counts. Too bad for them, though, that their votes won’t count as much where it counts: in the state’s delegation to the national convention in Tampa. This columnist all but dares the reader to turn the page when trying to explain how the Republican nomination process works in Louisiana. Suffice to say, one’s vote in the primary counts the least. At most, 20 of the state’s 46 delegates to the national convention are allocated to presidential candidates based on the primary election, and only to those candidates getting at least 25% of the vote—which is among the highest such thresholds in the country. Read the full column here.
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
