Today's Nevada and SC presidential contests - CNN calls it for Romney, Clinton

by: Pam Spaulding

Sat Jan 19, 2008 at 16:16:03 PM EST

[UPDATE: It's snowing here in NC; with the threat of icy weather overnight and tomorrow. This sucks because I am booked to go on CNN's Blog Buzz again -- tomorrow @ 7:30 PM to talk about these races. Hopefully I'll be able to get to Raleigh safely to do it via satellite as I did last time.]

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The Nevada caucuses and the Republican primary in South Carolina are rolling. It will be interesting to see how the race shakes out today. For the Dems, it is a close race, with some monkey business by Clinton supporters regarding caucus access for members of a union that endorsed Obama. (AP, chart from WaPo):

Nevada Democratic Caucus Results
Candidate	Votes *	%
Hillary Clinton	2,678	52%
Barack Obama	2,310	45%
John Edwards	190	4%
Uncommitted	10	0%
Dennis Kucinich	3	0%
Joe Biden	0	0%
Chris Dodd	0	0%
Mike Gravel	0	0%
Bill Richardson	0	0%
Key: * Explainer: What are these votes? | Winner Precincts: 51% | Updated: 4:05 PM ET | Source: AP

Obama and Clinton both ran all-out in Nevada, even though only 25 delegates are at stake. Obama won the backing of an influential Culinary Workers Union. That, in turn, led to an unsuccessful lawsuit by some of Clinton's supporters who hoped to ban specially arranged caucuses along the Las Vegas Strip that could draw thousands of unionized casino and hotel workers.

Obama, hoping to become the first black president, spent nearly $1 million in television commercials. Clinton, campaigning to become the country's first woman chief executive, ran nearly $700,000 worth of commercials, and a union group backed her with nearly $100,000 on an independent ad campaign.

Like Iowa, caucuses require you to publicly align with the candidate you support, it's not a secret balloting process, so there's no possibility of a Bradley Effect.

Nevada Republican Caucus
Candidate	Votes	%
Mitt Romney	9,559	56
John McCain	2,084	12
Ron Paul	2,014	12
Mike Huckabee	1,279	8
Other		12
Key: Winner Precincts: 38% | Updated: 3:35 PM ET | Source: AP

Meanwhile, Mitt easily walked away with the win in Nevada. With 19% in, he's leading with 55% of the vote. He's in friendly territory, as there is a large Mormon population there.

Nevada Republicans said the economy and illegal immigration were their top concerns, according to preliminary results from surveys of voters entering their caucuses. Romney led among voters who cited both issues.

Mormons gave Romney about half his votes. He is hoping to become the first member of his faith to win the White House. Alone among the Republican contenders, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas aired television ads in Nevada.

South Carolina matters are below the fold.

In South Carolina, the economy and immigration were cited as top issues, and preliminary survey data indicated a strong turnout by evangelical voters. Survey data in both states were from polls conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International. South Carolina primary voters coped with equipment difficulty and bad weather. Election officials in the area around Myrtle Beach brought out paper ballots after some electronic voting machines failed to work properly. Snow fell in the northern part of the state, which has little snow removal equipment.

Check out The BradBlog for more on the voting machine debacle in Horry County South Carolina (where Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach are). Nearly all the machines failed.

One in five of the supporters of each South Carolina front-runner say they are still very likely or somewhat likely to change their mind. There is an interesting breakdown of the politics of the regions of the Palmetto State at CNN; in 2000, a third of the voters in SC were self-identified evangelicals:

     The northwest portion of South Carolina, known as the Piedmont Region, represents the state's staunchest Republican area. Greenville County is the most populous and most industrialized county in the state. The religious, conservative area also includes Spartanburg and Anderson.

    The Midlands includes Columbia, the state capital, and much of the black majority 6th Congressional District. It's the most Democratic part of the state and also includes Orangeburg, home of the historically black South Carolina State University.

    The Pee Dee region was originally home to the Pee Dee Indians. It has its commercial roots in tobacco and cotton. The city of Sumter has become more progressive and tends to be slightly more Democratic than the rest of the state.

    The Low Country region is a diverse group of counties that collectively mirror the statewide vote. There is a significant black population, especially in central-city Charleston.
    Charleston and new, prosperous recreational communities along the coast are giving Republicans more strength.