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This evening, the Louisiana Republican Party held caucuses at 11 sites across the state to select delegates to a state convention at which Louisiana’s GOP convention delegates will be determined. The Louisiana caucuses could potentially benefit one of the Republicans running for President, but this one really takes the cake–it’s so complicated that no one is reporting on it.

The caucuses closed at 8:00 pm–9:00 here–so maybe it’s a bit early for results, which will be difficult to interpret in any event. But so far the only thing we could find was from a Ron Paul supporter who stated that the Paulies had a majority of the turnout at the Lake Charles caucus site.

Here’s how Louisiana’s caucus works (I think): The attendees at the 11 caucus sites voted on delegates to the statewide convention. Those delegates are nominally “uncommitted.” But if a majority of attendees at a caucus site were, for example, Ron Paul supporters, they would vote for delegates who, in turn, will support Paul. But that process only accounts for about half the La. delegates to the GOP national convention. The remaining delegates–those who are “at large” or “bonus” delegates–will be selected at the state convention; if someone gets 50% of the vote in a “beauty contest” primary on Feb. 9, then he gets that second tranch of delegates; otherwise, they’re also nominally uncommitted.

That said, it looks like Ron Paul has a decent chance of ultimately having quite a few Louisiana “uncommitted” delegates in fact committed to him.

And if that’s so, it will certainly teach the Louisiana Republican Party leadership a thing or two about having such a ridiculous nominating process.

In any event, it looks like Loosianans will be ignored, despite this amusing quote from Roger Villere, the chairman of the La. Republican Party, earlier this month: “We’re excited about the upcoming caucuses. I believe this system will allow Louisiana Republicans to have a strong impact on the election of the next President of the United States.”

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