In the March 24 Louisiana presidential preference primary, Democratic challenger John Wolfe, Jr. scored 17,804 votes. Wolfe is a lawyer from Chattanooga, TN and a virtual unknown in Louisiana. Party rules award delegates to the national convention for any candidate whose vote exceeds 15% in a congressional district. Wolfe racked up almost 19.6% in the 1st District, 17.2% in the 3rd and 22.0% in my district, the 7th.

That’s a minimum of three delegates, right there. Congratula… oooh, not so fast.

Louisiana Democratic Party denies 3 delegates to fringe candidate

“Mr. Wolfe is not eligible for any delegates in the state of Louisiana as he failed to comply with the Louisiana delegate selection plan,” said James Hallinan, director of communications and research for the state party. “Mr. Wolfe violated rule 2B in the delegate selection plan by failing to certify an authorized representative for his campaign in Louisiana to the Louisiana Democratic Party by the deadline of December 9, 2011.

“Additionally, Mr. Wolfe failed to provide the Louisiana Democratic Party with a statement of full participation by the deadline of October 1, 2011. Both rules are included in the Louisiana delegate selection plan that has been publicly available online via the Louisiana Democratic Party’s website since April of 2011.”

However, by paying strict attention to those two filing deadlines, the party would seem to be abrogating the letter and spirit of another provision of the rules, which states that, “The Louisiana presidential primary election is a ‘binding’ primary. Accordingly, delegate and alternate positions shall be allocated so as to fairly reflect the expressed presidential (or uncommitted) preference of the primary voters in each district. The National Convention delegates and alternates selected at the district level shall be allocated in proportion to the percentage of the primary vote won in that district by each preference, except that preferences falling below a 15 percent threshold shall not be awarded any delegates or alternates.” …

“Any person in the party who thinks they can make up the rules as we go along is violating the due process provision of the Constitution, which applies to state parties,” Wolfe said. “I will be going to the federal court in Baton Rouge to make sure the 17,804 Louisianans who voted for me are represented at the convention.” [Emphasis added.]

Oklahoma Dems have ruled anti-abortion activist Randall Terry ineligible on a different technicality, despite his winning more than 15% of that state’s Democratic primary vote.

In order to help delegates vote efficiently and correctly for Dear Leader at the convention, the General Secretary of the Party has released the following instructional video:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKyC9VEs6CA&w=420&h=315]

Cross-posted at stevemaley.com.