Central Residents Run for Delegate Saturday

Conservative Slate 3 Takes on Ron Paul, Romney Slates in Kristenwood Voting

CENTRAL — On March 24, Louisiana Republicans gave 49 percent of their votes to former Sen. Rick Santorum in Louisiana’s Presidential Primary.  Former Gov. Mitt Romney received 25 percent.

But the Presidential Primary allocated only 15 of Louisiana’s 46 delegates to the Republican National Convention.

The other 31 delegates to the party’s national convention will be chosen at the Louisiana Republican Party’s state convention June 2.

Delegates to the state convention will be elected this Saturday, April 28 in an election conducted by the Louisiana Republican Party.

In East Baton Rouge Parish, voting will be conducted from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon at two polling places — Kristenwood at 14025 Greenwell Springs Rd. for Republican voters who reside north of Florida Boulevard and Jefferson Baptist Church for Republican voters who reside south of Florida Blvd.

Five Central residents are running for state delegate on the Conservative Slate (Slate 3), including former Rep. Tony Perkins, Richard Perkins, Jolice Provost, Jr. Shelton, and Rep. Valarie Hodges.

Two other Central residents are running for Alternate Delegate on the Louisiana Conservative Delegate Slate, Slate 3 — Lawana Perkins, wife of Tony Perkins, and former Tea Party president Dwight Hudson.

Central resident Linnie Leavines is a candidate for delegate on the Ron Paul Slate. She is on Ron Paul Slate 1.

On Saturday, April 28, all voters in East Baton Rouge Parish who have been on the voting rolls as registered Republicans since Dec. 15, 2011, are eligible to vote.

They should go by Kristenwood between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 12 noon.  Voters in line by 12 noon will be allowed to vote.

This is not a caucus, and there will be no speeches.  Voters will simply go in, show their photo I.D., take a ballot, and vote.

Republican voters can either vote for one of the Slates on the front of the ballot or they can vote for individual candidates on the back of the ballot.  However, a ballot will be thrown out if the voter votes on both sides of the ballot.  In addition, a ballot will be thrown out if the voter votes for more than one Slate on the front of the ballot or more than 25 delegates and 12 alternates on the back of the ballot.

The normal restrictions against campaigning within 500 feet of a voting precinct do not apply in this election, because it is not being conducted by the State of Louisiana but rather by the Republican Party of Louisiana.

Former Rep. Tony Perkins said it is important to send a conservative delegation from Louisiana to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, Aug. 27-30, 2012.  The convention, composed of delegates elected from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U. S. territories, will formally nominate the Republican candidates for President and Vice President and adopt the Republican National Platform.

Perkins said a conservative delegation from Louisiana will push the Republican nominee to the right and help insure that the party adopts a conservative platform.

Four years ago, the same conservative group, led by Republican National Committeeman Ross Little, carried all seven of Louisiana’s Congressional districts, and conservatives swept virtually all Louisiana’s delegate spots.

Central City News editor Woody Jenkins was elected by the Louisiana delegation to the 2008 Republican National Convention to serve as Louisiana’s member of the Platform Committee.  In that capacity, he passed more than a dozen planks in the party Platform, all of which were ratified by the full convention.

This year, Louisiana has only six Congressional districts.  Republican voters will elect 25 delegates to the state Republican convention from each of those six districts, along with 12 alternates.

The State Convention will meet June 2 and elect Louisiana’s national convention delegates.

Ross Little has been working to organize the Conservative Slate since December.  He said about 75 percent of the Conservative Slate favored Santorum at the time that he dropped out of the race, while about 25 favored former Speaker Newt Gingrich.

“Those conservative leaders are the ones still on our slate, and we believe it is important to send a conservative delegation to Tampa, in order to keep our nominee as conservative as possible,” he said.

The Ron Paul Slate has also been working hard in Louisiana since last year, and they are expected to do well in the voting this Saturday.  The Ron Paul headquarters on Jefferson Highway has been phone banking Republican voters for months, in an effort to get them to vote Saturday.

Gov. Mitt Romney filed a delegate slate at the last minute, but is not believed to be well organized in the state.  He just began an advertising campaign for his delegate slate.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich filed a slate containing the same names as Slate 3, the Conservative Slate.  A voter who wishes to vote for Gingrich should vote for Slate 2.  However, those votes will be added to the votes of the candidates on Slate 3.

Most observers expect the contest Saturday to be primarily between the Louisiana Conservative Delegate Slate (Slate 3) and the Ron Paul Slate (Slate 1) for control of the Louisiana delegation.