With a deadline fast approaching, an intra-party state GOP dispute involving Ron Paul supporters is stymieing selection of the Louisiana delegates to the Republican presidential nominating convention.

The fight could end up going all the way to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., where delegates are primed to nominate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

“We anticipate going to Florida and having Mitt Romney as the nominee,” said Charlie Davis, state organizer for Texas Congressman Paul.

But Davis said the fight is over the state Republican Party hierarchy’s attempt to hand pick certain delegates and ignore votes cast by a majority at a June 2 state convention called to elect Louisiana’s 43 delegates going to the convention.

The names of the 43 delegates elected at the state convention have been forwarded to the Republican National Convention for seating, Davis said Thursday.

Unless the delegates are recognized by the state party, Davis said, he plans to take the fight to the Republican National Convention committee that determines delegate challenges “complete with YouTube video of what happened” at the Shreveport convention.

“I fully expect the delegates we elected at the convention will be seated,” said Davis, a former state party executive.

Paul has said he wants to have as many delegates as possible to influence the party platform at the convention.

Paul supporters surprised state GOP leaders by winning caucuses in four of six districts to become delegates to a state convention at which national convention delegates were to be elected. At the convention, dissension erupted with competing elections being held — one by the Paul camp and the other led by party officials — with police intervention at one point.

State Republican Party executive director Jason Doré said Thursday that the state party is trying to work with the Paul camp on the delegate selection.

Doré said the party has 13 delegates left to name out of 43 selected. The list must be submitted to the Republican National Committee by July 28.

The vacant spots, which the party’s executive committee can now fill, were left open “to facilitate talks with Ron Paul supporters” in the wake of the convention trouble, party officials previously said.

“They have not worked anything out yet,” Doré said. “It’s hard to know exactly what their intention is.

“The Paul campaign is pretty dynamic with a lot of individuals. It’s no monolith. Everybody’s got their own agenda,” Doré said.

The party is trying to avoid a delegate seating challenge at the convention.

As of today, 10 convention delegates are aligned with former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania; five with Romney; and one with Paul. Another 14 are technically unbound to any candidate and are expected to support Romney.

Although Santorum has endorsed Romney, Santorum has not yet released his delegates to vote for Romney, Doré said.

The dispute continues as Gov. Bobby Jindal continues traveling out of state to promote Romney’s candidacy. Jindal was in Ohio on Thursday to take part in a bus tour through the state. On Friday, he was scheduled to be in Pennsylvania.

Davis said about 50 percent of the delegates on the Paul list are also on the party list developed by a minority of state convention participants.

“It seems there’s no incentive for the state party to make a quick decision,” Davis said. “Judging by what’s happened in the past, the status quo will remain. The next deadline is July 28.”

The state GOP had a two-step delegate selection process starting with a Republican presidential preference primary at which candidates that received at least 25 percent of the vote earned a share of 20 convention delegates based on election results. The second step were regional caucuses at which other delegates were elected to attend a state convention June 2 who would vote for specific delegates.

Santorum topped the presidential primary field gaining ten delegates and Romney came in second garnering five delegates. Other candidates did not hit the 25 percent mark.

The Paul supporters were better organized than those of other presidential candidates winning the key caucuses and election to the state convention at which the election of the people who would become delegates would occur.