The Louisiana Primary gave Rick Santorum an overwhelming victory on Saturday over Mitt Romney, as Santorum won all but one parish in the Bayou State - but his advantage in the delegate math was small - depending on how you read the Louisiana GOP rules.
The one thing everyone agreed on was that candidates needed 25% of the vote in order to become eligible for the pool of 20 statewide delegates available in this primary.
After that, things were a bit complicated, as some experts on delegate math said Santorum won 13 delegates to 7 for Mitt Romney, while others said Santorum won 10, Romney 5 and 5 others were left in the uncommitted category.
Rule 20(b) of the Louisiana Republican delegate rules state this:
"(b) At Large Delegates elected in accordance with Rule 19 (d) shall be allocated to a Presidential candidate only if a candidate receives at least 25% of votes in the Presidential Preference Primary. If a candidate receives at least 25% of the votes in the Presidential Preference Primary, that candidate shall be allocated at large delegates in proportion to the percentage of the votes received, rounded to the nearest delegate. If no candidate receives at least 25% of the votes in the Presidential Preference Primary, such at large delegates are designated as uncommitted. All other at large delegates shall be allocated and designated as uncommitted."
Some like Josh Putnam of FrontloadingHQ, a blog that tracks the intricate details of the delegate race, read the above paragraph to say that the delegates are divided among the two candidates over 25% (Santorum and Romney) and some for uncommitted.
But others like the folks at thegreenpapers.com, another web site that goes into great detail about the GOP delegate race, argued it was Santorum 13 and Romney 7.
One thing is very clear - no matter how the Louisiana rules are read, it was not a big delegate win for Rick Santorum in the Bayou State, as Santorum either picked up five or six delegates on Romney.
Still, it was a big overall win of 22 percentage points for Santorum, a reminder that Romney has not fared well in more conservative southern states.
Even before the votes were counted, Santorum was stumping for votes in Wisconsin, which will be the next big battleground state on April 3.
In the meantime, Romney and his backers will keep arguing that he will be the GOP nominee no matter what Santorum is able to do in coming weeks while Santorum keeps arguing he can come from behind and catch the frontrunner.
Hopefully the delegate math will be a bit easier to decode in coming weeks.
