Lousyana Republicans Vote

The difference between Northern and Southern Louisiana is like night and day. The Gulf Coast portion of the state is full of Cajuns, Creoles, and a gumbo of Catholic orders.  It’s a very live and let live kinda place.  The North is rural and very Baptist.  The KKK is still active up there. That’s not to say that it’s the only part of the state where people get representatives that are racist, sexist, and backward.  Take this jerk who is actually a Romney supporter from the White Flight area of Mandeville.  No, I mean it!  Take him!  Please!!

State Rep. Tim Burns of Mandeville, who, in 2008, justified his support for a slate of immigration bills by suggesting that undocumented immigrants had made Walmart unsafe for women:

They’re frustrated by the inability to go to Walmart at night, they’re scared to go to Walmart at night…You weren’t sure you were in this country. Not trying to profile people, but it just seemed like people were concerned, that they were…ah…I’m not trying to say any people there were being rude, or disrespectful or anything, but I could see how somebody, a housewife, could be intimidated to go there.

Walmart actually has pretty tight security, but Burns’ point was that a certain group of people were by definition both suspicious and intimidating. It’s positions and statements like these that help explain why Latinos are fleeing the Republican primary; just 14 percent of Latino voters say they would support Romney against President Obama in November.

Burns is also an avid opponent of abortion, to the extent that, in 2006, he sponsored a bill that would make the procedure punishable by one year in prison and/or a $10,000 fine. He made exceptions for rape and incest—sort of. Rape victims would need to prove within five days of the rape that they had not been pregnant prior to the crime; the rape must be reported to the police within seven days; and the abortion must be reported within 13 days. In cases of incest, victims would be required to file a police report prior to receiving an abortion (a move that would be severely complicated by the fact that the state also requires parental consent). State Rep. Joe Harrison, whose endorsement was also trumpeted by the Romney campaign on Thursday, introduced a 2011 bill that “would make it a crime to transport or shelter an illegal immigrant, or to help them stay here in the US”—similar to the law that was eventually passed in Alabama.

Northern Lousiana means Rick Santorum voters .  We’ve been seeing Santorum videos for some time.  Here’s a sample that I’m sure you’re going to find a bit bizarre.

This is an open thread but I will post the primary votes as we get them.  Polls close at 8 pm CST.  It’s the bayou and cities vs. the cotton, white flight, and drill baby drill parts of the state.