Three campaigns had a presence. They were the Ron Paul campaign, the Mitt Romney campaign, and the John McCain campaign. In addition, a group calling itself "Pro-Life, Pro-family" was supporting a slate of delegates.
Of these groups, Ron Paul's campaign had the most visible presence. People with Ron Paul T-shirts, signs, and buttons were everywhere. Many of them were college students, but I saw a good mix of Ron Paul supporters of every age. Some dressed very casually as young people tend to do, and others looked more conventional. Ron Paul was in Louisiana on Monday, and visiting the state allowed him to mobilize his people.
John McCain's people weren't quite as visible in the crowd. The McCain stickers and buttons weren't as obvious. They seemed to be an older group of people. However, no voter could approach the building without being offered a card with the John McCain slate at least once. Many of the people coming to vote were obviously John McCain supporters. They had their card with the McCain slate, and they weren't interested in receiving a card from any other candidate. John McCain has received some high profile endorsements in the state, and those endorsements will carry some votes.
Our group was a pretty nice mixture. We had a couple of kids who walked around the parking lot with Mitt Romney signs. We had a good mix of ages in our supporters. Some people came to the caucus looking for one of us to provide the list of Romney delegate candidates, and others were less sure but at least willing to listen.
The "Pro-Life, Pro-Family" group also had a good representation. Quite a few people passing me had the pro-life list and were not really interested in looking at another list.
Some of the people on the ballot are fixtures in the Baton Rouge Republican community. One man running in my district was the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in 1996, and he barely lost that race. Many people thought that Mary Landrieu won only through fraud. I believe he's uncommitted to any candidate at this time, but I'm certain that he'll win one of the 15 delegate positions from our district. Another man has run for several statewide offices and may have even held one of those offices recently. He was on the Mitt Romney slate as well as being on the pro-life slate. I'm certain that he'll win one of the positions. A few others seem to be big names in the local GOP community, so I'm sure they'll win as well.
Beyond those people, I couldn't tell who had the best turnout. I won't be surprised to see the Ron Paul people win most of the positions in the 6th District. Of the 15 positions in the 6th district, we may end up with three or four supporting Mitt Romney, four or five supporting John McCain, four or five supporting Ron Paul, and a few uncommitted delegates. Maybe we'll do better even better, but I can't report an easy win for us tonight. I will be very surprised if I'm one of the Mitt Romney supporters who wins.
Overall, people were nice. A few of the Ron Paul supporters were hard core and did a little shouting. Most of them were young people who were fun. As the incoming voters slowed, I spent some time talking to a few of them. I've been an official volunteer on a Ron Paul congressional campaign, so they couldn't say that I was someone who didn't understand and never listened to Dr. Paul. Overall, they were a good group. I also enjoyed talking to other Mitt Romney supporters. I've not done any live campaigning with the Romney people, and this event was fun.
Bill
Thank you for proving that you can post on Free Republic and mention Ron Paul without spewing venom on the man and his supporters. I want to share that I heard Mitt on the AM radio while driving back from dropping my son off at college. Mitt told a storing about his sons giving him a classic car for his 60th birthday. He was extremely charming and engaging and I thoroughly enjoyed the anecdote.
we were there tonight....yes, the Paul crowd was out in full force...my son (16) was a volunteer and one Paul supporter stopped him as we were leaving and asked him what was in his bag...it was a laptop bag. He then asked if he could look inside it, since he saw my son near the ballot area. I almost stepped in, but since he had nothing to hide and I didnt want to end up on YouTube (lol)I let him open it and show him that there were no ballots in there! The guy was polite but I was surprised at his brazeness...I wanted to ask him if he had a warrant!!!!