Nevada Republicans caucused on Saturday to make their choice for the GOP nomination for president. Their choice was Mitt Romney.
Romney entered the Nevada caucus with a wide lead in the polls. A heavy Mormon presence in Nevada paid off for Romney, who ended up with 48% of the vote. Newt Gingrich inched out Ron Paul and came in 2nd with 23% of the vote. Ron Paul was surprisingly in 2nd place for most of the night, but ended up in 3rd with 19%, while Rick Santorum was last with 11%.
Nevada, like most states, is not a “winner-take-all” state, meaning the delegates are split between the contenders. That could prove problematic for Romney, who has to find a formula to the 1144 delegates needed for him to secure the nomination.
As of Saturday, the delegate count is as follows:
ROMNEY – 95
GINGRICH – 30
SANTORUM – 13
PAUL – 10
Because the remaining candidates continue splitting the delegate count, Romney has quite a ways to go to reach the magic number, despite the fact that he’s in the lead. A ton of southern states are also coming up soon, which could go for Gingrich and thereby split the delegates even further. So the Republican contest for the presidency continues to be a race between 4 tortoises — it will be a long trip to the finish line!
COMING UP TOMORROW:
Colorado Caucus – 36 Delegates
Minnesota Caucus – 40 Delegates
Missouri Primary – 52 Delegates
And as usual the story BEHIND the story contiues to be the OBVIOUS LACK of enthusiasm among Repub voters, and center-right Independents, for ANY of the GOP candidates resulting in another state with "VERY LOW" voter turnout.LGF: "Very Poor GOP Voter Turnout in Nevada"The Las Vegas Sun reports that voter turnout for the Nevada caucuses was very low, despite the Republican Party’s constant fear-mongering and attacks on President Obama.Something’s going wrong with the GOP strategy of demonization and Tea Party ultra-conservatism; I suspect the toxic atmosphere of the far right is beginning to turn off center right Republicans, and that could spell big trouble for the GOP in the general election. […]Read: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/39878_Ver…Las Vegas Sun: "Economic woes, anti-Obama sentiment fail to draw large turnout"http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/feb/04/econo…And then there's THIS: It was also reported that, just like in Iowa, the GOP Caucus process in Nevada was northing short of a mess.FOXNews: "Nevada caucuses suffer low turnout, surly confrontations""This is beyond embarrassing. This is beyond humiliating. GOP leaders here ought to be forced to wear brown bags over their heads from now until the convention," he wrote in a statement that detailed what he claimed were robocalls by Paul supporters to go to the school and vote again."The GOP here has known about this caucus for four years. Nevertheless, it blew the opportunity to use it for voter registration gains. It blew the opportunity to get lots and lots of presidential candidates here early and often. It blew the opportunity to use it to raise a boatload of money via the Western States Republican Leadership Conference" Muth said. […]Read: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/05/nevada…
So wait a minute. Romney's surrogates are actually out there TRYING to sell the absurd story that LOWER voter turnout somehow means that GOP voters are happy with Romney?!ThinkProgress: "Romney Campaign Spins Low Turn Out: Voters Staying At Home Secretly Support Romney"With just 33,000 voters showing up to the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, Republicans may be quietly concerned about a lack of enthusiasm for their candidates — and especially front-runner Mitt Romney — after another primary state produces lower-than-expected turnout.But not former New Hampshire governor John Sununu. The Romney campaign surrogate appeared on MSNBC this morning and offered a novel interpretation of the low figures:SUNUNU: In an odd sense when turnout is down, contrary to what you are hearing, people are satisfied with the winning and the candidate that’s winning. They are satisfied with Mitt Romney.In fact, a new poll out today shows that the more voters are learning about Romney, the less they like him.Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman Amy Tarkanian initially predicted as many as 70,000 Nevadans would participate in this year’s caucus, but final results show that fewer than half as many actually turned out. The 33,000 figure is not only lower than expectations, but more than 10,000 fewer than participated in Nevada’s caucus in 2008. And even though Romney topped 50 percent of the vote for the first time in this primary season in the sate, his vote total was more than 25 percent LOWER than it was in 2008, and his percentage of the vote fell slightly as well.The results in Nevada mark the third Republican primary so far where turnout has been below 2008 levels. In a year where Republicans are counting on high enthusiasm to defeat President Obama, that’s not a good sign for the eventual nominee. In Florida, turnout dipped 14 percent, and in New Hampshire, which has an open primary, turnout among registered Republicans fell 16 percent. […]Story & video: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/02/06/4194…Well I just hope Repub voters continue to show they're "satisfied" with Romney straight up to the November election 😉 !