NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Louisiana won’t assign any delegates to a Tennessee lawyer who finished a distant second to President Barack Obama in the state’s Democratic primary because the party said he didn’t meet the qualifications required.
The state Democratic Party announced Monday that John Wolfe failed to comply with the party’s delegate selection plan for the March primary election. He missed deadlines to certify an authorized representative for his campaign in the state and to provide a necessary statement of participation to the state party.
Wolfe got almost 12 percent of the statewide vote. Analysts said he would have earned an estimated three delegates, based on his totals in some congressional districts. Louisiana would have been one of the only states where Democratic delegates would have gone to an Obama opponent.
Wolfe told The Times-Picayune that the party rules say the result of the presidential primary is binding.
“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.”
The delegates representing the candidates in proportion to their primary vote will be chosen at May 5 congressional district caucuses.
Louisiana sends 71 delegates to the national convention. Sixty-four will be pledged to Obama. Seven “super delegates” are uncommitted but they include prominent state party leaders, including chairman Buddy Leach and U. S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, who are considered certain to support Obama.
Wolfe was one of three little-known challengers to Obama on the March 24 ballot. Wolfe, on his campaign website, says Obama is too cozy with Wall Street and corporate interests and says corporate tax rates are too low.
The Tennessee lawyer has run into trouble in his home state, receiving a public censure from his state Supreme Court’s professional responsibility board for misconduct in his handling of a personal injury lawsuit and facing a $900,000 federal tax lien.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
 
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