Nevada / South Carolina Live Wire

Romney Wins Nevada Caucuses

CBS ESTIMATES THAT CLINTON WINS ....

** Dems: Obama, Clinton run strong early on...Clinton leading Clark County with 9% in....

....Romney looks "forward" to Florida...will run on "economy"....has 3 golds and 2 silvers and the delegate lead...all his wins come with delegates. AND a *but*....and McCain campaign sends around video of NBC's O'Donnell calling Romney's win "in name only"..... (She is wrong: Romney wins delegates. How's that "in name only," NBC?)

** Edwards campaign says that a supporter went to a caucus at Charles Silvesti Middle School...and is told outside that Edwards isn't viable.
..
Obama's manager sends out memo lowering expectations...says Clinton campaign has engaged in "systematic effort" to discredit the caucuses...

Our hope is that today’s caucus comes off without a hitch and as many people as possible participate, however we remain concerned that the tactics of the Clinton Campaign and their allies in recent days have confused voters and could lower participation.

** Bill Clinton alleges voter intimidation. Per an ABC pool report:

Well, we were worried about people, even more people, being prevented from voting if they were voting for Hillary. Because yesterday Chelsea and I were going through one of the hotels here someone was going behind us saying if you vote for Hillary we are going to give you a job assignment that keeps you from going to the caucus. And haven’t sent tactics like that in decades.

** Thompson: future depends on SC results.

Huge turnout...ballots running out on the strip...

Comments

I know it is early but if the numbers we have now held up, I think your "hunch" about Edwards is going to be disproven in a big way
I am STUNNED as how low his numbers are so far. It is a two-people race indeed.

Posted by Benjamin | January 19, 2008 3:47 PM

Nevada has 34 delegates and Mitt is getting more votes than all the other candidates combined. South Carolina has a total of 24 delegates, and it's not winner take all. Mitt went into today with more delegates (42) than McCain and Huckabee combined (40), and his margin will significantly increase today. He won all demographic groups in Nevada except Independents. Once again he received more votes from evangelicals and born-agains than Huckabee. More than 80% of the state's population live within 50 miles of Arizona and Mitt is getting 4 times as many votes as McCain. All in all, an extremely impressive victory.

Posted by Dave | January 19, 2008 4:02 PM

Damnit, I'm hoping CBS be as wrong as a red-tailed cat in a Mississippi church. (Sorry, bad Dan Rather jokes still hard to resist.)

And the John Edwards numbers are astonishing if they hold. Romney's margins are amazing too. But the perception of a Southern victory may still hold greater significance. Hard to tell yet.

Do we know anything about the geographic distribution of candidates support in Nevada?

Posted by Jimmy | January 19, 2008 4:12 PM