Louisiana State Republican Convention Results LIVE: Ron Paul Campaign Releases Statement

Impact

Republicans from all over the state of Louisiana will be in Shreveport this weekend for the Republican State Convention.

During the Louisiana Primary, Rick Santoram picked up most of the delegates. Santorum got 10 delegates, while Romney got 5. In the Louisiana Caucuses Ron Paul won 17 of the 23 delegates.

Now, Louisiana Republicans must decide who the 46 Louisiana delegates should support when the go to the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August, and Ron Paul supporters hope the Saturday deliberations will help their candidate to capitalize on his caucus victory and continuing adding delegates towards a strong presence in Tampa.

UPDATE: Saturday 6:06 PM: Ron Paul Campaign Statement: Following is a statement from the Ron Paul Campaign as printed by The Examiner

“The Ron Paul campaign condemns the unfortunate activities that took place at the Louisiana Republican State Convention in Shreveport.

However, we also wish to highlight and applaud the fact that the convention ended on a high note reflective of the cooperation all Republicans wish to see toward the mutual aim of defeating President Obama in the November general election."

LAGOP officials ignored the vast majority of duly elected delegates and attempted to use illegally adopted rules to deny Ron Paul supporters an opportunity to attend the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Louisiana has 46 delegates. Five were pledged to Mitt Romney based on the March 23rd primary result and Rick Santorum received 10, meaning most delegates were contestable at the state convention.

Saturday 3:27 PM: Video of a Ron Paul Delegate Being Assaulted and Thrown Out is Posted on YouTube (+Video): A video of Alex Helwig, Ron Paul Rules Chairman, who was elected legitimately by the majority delegation, being thrown out and assaulted by Shreveport Police from  the Louisiana Convention was posted on YouTube.

Watch here:

Saturday 9:49 AM: Ron Paul Supporters Would Split Convention: A fight Ron Paul supporters and 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.  

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.

Friday 1:40 PM: Rick Santorum sent Louisiana GOP Chairman Roger Villere a list of 20 "bona fide” supporters who he would like to see filling the ten delegate and ten alternate slots he won in the state's March 24 primary.

Santorum hopes to prevent any move by Ron Paul supporters, who, by virtue of their triumph in the party's sparsely attended April 28 caucuses, will control events in Shreveport, to name Paul loyalists to fill the Santorum slots at the national convention in Tampa.