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… Read more »