News Editor
Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) won the hotly contested Nevada Democratic caucus for her second straight victory, while Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.) coasted to victory there in the Republican caucus in the first major contest in the West.
With 90 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton captured 51 percent of the vote, with Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) receiving 45 percent and Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) placing a distant third, not even receiving four percent.
Nevada state Democratic party officials told the New York Times that they had a record turnout of more than 107,000 voters, making it the third straight state to host a record turnout of Democratic voters in the early primary season.
The powerful Culinary Union had endorsed Obama the day after the New Hampshire primary, and that was expected to deliver him a major constituency because of its deep organization and strength in Nevada.
Democratic voters poured into caucus sites around the state, including eight sites on the Las Vegas strip that were the source of major controversy between the Clinton and Obama campaigns: after the Culinary Union endorsement, elements connected to the Clinton campaign filed a lawsuit claiming caucus-goers at those sites had disproportionate power because they were able to caucus while at work, whereas other workers could not. The lawsuit failed, but Clinton won at least six of the sites anyway.
“Today we won a huge victory by overcoming institutional hurdles,” said a memo from the Clinton campaign hours after the caucuses closed. “This was a victory for all those who work hard and caucused on behalf of Hillary to revive our struggling economy.”
Clinton had accused surrogates of the Obama campaign of intimidating caucus-goers to vote for him in the late hours of the Nevada contest, but she showed no concrete evidence of such intimidation, citing “anecdotes” from her supporters.
Exit polls indicated a nearly 3-1 margin of victory for Clinton by Hispanic voters. A majority of women voters supported Clinton, according to exit polls.
The same exit polls indicated a 5-1 margin of victory amongst black voters for Obama.
NBC News called Romney’s victory by 1 p.m., immediately upon the closing of the GOP caucuses. Half of his voters were Mormon, according to exit polls.
Romney was the only Republican candidate to seriously campaign in Nevada, with most of the others concerning themselves with the South Carolina GOP primary occurring the same day. Turnout there was expected to be impacted by the weather, which forecasted for snow in many parts of the state.
With 97 percent of Republican precincts reporting, Romney won with 51 percent of the vote, followed by Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), each with 13 percent, but Paul edged McCain by about 200 votes.
UPDATE: Victory for Clinton is not so settled after all. The Obama campaign put out a statement saying despite losing the caucus by percentage, it won the battle over delegates, 13 to 12, and that the Clinton campaign engaged in voter intimidation. Clinton's campaign responded saying he was wrong, that they won 13 to 12. Further muddling the picture is the state Democratic chairman, who said he cannot verify the vote count, because he is assuming the delegates are going to stay committed to their candidate until the official tally is taken in late April.
Stay tuned, because this can get very, very ugly.
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