Romney’s Nevada Win

Sat, January 19, 2008 - 2:29 PM

WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney has just been projected by several news outlets as the winner of the Nevada caucuses.

That gives the former Massachusetts governor three wins in GOP contests -- Nevada, Michigan and Wyoming -- heading into the results later today of voting in South Carolina.

While Romney is not expected to be one of the top two finishers in the Palmetto State, his easy victory today in largely uncontested Nevada means he is guaranteed to head into Florida's Jan. 29 winner-take-all primary with the most victories among the Republican hopefuls.

But Romney has been emphasizing that the race for the nomination is a delegate race, and that he was not so much focused on winning today's major battle in the first Southern primary, but on the strategy of collecting the most delegates. South Carolina awards just 24 delegates to Nevada's 31.

Florida will represent a larger prize than any of the previous states, 57 delegates. Latest polls in Florida show the Republican race a virtual four-way tie, with Romney, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mike Huckabee in a statistical dead-heat.

Winning Florida could be key for one of the GOP contenders to finally establish themselves as a frontrunner going into Feb. 5, when 21 states will hold Republican primaries or caucuses.

In analyzing today's Nevada caucus results, political analysts say the Mormon vote helped boost Romney's showing.

And some pundits are now suggesting Mormons also could be a big factor in Romney's favor in other Western states like Utah, Idaho, delegate-rich California, and parts of Arizona -- rival McCain's home state.

-- Billy House