Louisiana primary voters hardly enthusiastic about GOP options

Nine Republicans were listed on the presidential primary ballot, including Charles “Buddy” Roemer, a former Louisiana governor who has instead opted to run as a third-party candidate, but for voters interviewed on their way out, only the last two mattered: Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. And Santorum mattered to many more than Romney, whose supporters sounded tepid.

But few voters seemed thrilled about their choice in the GOP presidential primary, with some settling on a candidate at the very last minute. And several said they liked Newt Gingrich, but didn’t vote for him in the end because they believed he can’t win the nomination.

Louis and Norma Pelletteri voted for Santorum, settling on him because he is a family man with Christian values. Louis, 55, a captain with the New Orleans Fire Department, picked the former Pennsylvania senator through the process of elimination. “Each one of them, there’s something I don’t like about them,” he said. “He’s the lesser of the evils.”

Louis said he thought Romney was too much like President Obama. And Norma, 56, an accounting clerk, said she believed that Gingrich represented “old politics.”

David Kopelman, 47, who works in procurement at a shipyard, said he saw Santorum on the television news firing a semiautomatic handgun at a shooting range in northern Louisiana and that caught his attention. He owns about 30 guns.

“Guns is one thing. The right to bear arms,” he said. “He’s going to be my man.”