Nation & World

LAS VEGAS — Mitt Romney spent years cultivating voters in Nevada, and it paid off Saturday with a commanding victory that pushed him closer to the Republican presidential nomination and laid a strong marker in a state both parties will fight to carry in November.

Romney also won the Nevada caucuses in 2008, and he never really stopped campaigning here. The only question was whether Romney would top the 51 percent he received four years ago.

Trailing far behind were former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who were locked in a battle for second, based on partial results. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who eked out a win in Iowa but has faded since, was a distant fourth.

"Thank you, guys, what a great showing," an exuberant Romney said late Saturday in Las Vegas as supporters waved white-and-blue placards reading, "Nevada believes."

"This is not the first time you gave me your vote of confidence, and this time I'm going to take it all the way to the White House," he added.

Gingrich, at a late-night news conference, said he would stay in the race until the late-summer national party convention.

"I am a candidate for president of the United States. I will be a candidate for president of the United States," he said. "We will continue to campaign all the way to Tampa."

There are 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination, and Romney has staked an early lead in that count after winning three of the first five contests, including a Florida blowout Tuesday. He picked up at least 10 in Nevada's contest.

But more meaningful was the momentum Romney gained from his back-to-back wins, which will propel him forward to the next round of balloting Tuesday in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri.

Beyond that, the former Massachusetts governor demonstrated strengths, such as an impressive get-out-the-vote operation, that will serve him well in Nevada in the fall, should he emerge as the GOP nominee.

More than one-quarter of the electorate Saturday was Mormon and more than 9 in 10 of that group voted for Romney, who is Mormon. That percentage of voters will shrink in the general election. Even so, Democrats acknowledge that Romney starts with a strong, highly motivated base upon which to build for November.

But his strong performance Saturday grew out of more than religious affinity; he garnered support across much of the Republican Party, as he did in Florida and New Hampshire, the other states he won. Entrance polls showed him carrying just about every category of caucusgoer, except for the youngest voters, the secular and those making the least money, who preferred Paul.

Nevada saw a truncated campaign that disappointed many here who anticipated the state's turn on the national stage and a chance to introduce Nevada's woes and Western issues, such as water and land use, into the presidential discussion.

Although Nevada has the nation's highest unemployment rate, 12.6 percent, and leads the country in foreclosures, the candidates never discussed the housing collapse in any detail.

A feisty Romney alluded to both in his victory speech, laying into President Obama and denying him any credit for January's positive job-creation report and a dip in the nation's unemployment rate to 8.3 percent

"Mr. President, we welcome any good news on the jobs front," Romney said. "But it is thanks to the innovation of the America people and the private sector and not to you, Mr. President."

There were a few only-in-Nevada moments in recent days; Paul's hotbed of support in the state's legal brothels was widely noted.

But little else distinguished the contest from those that preceded it. That resulted in part from Nevada's balloting having been pushed back from fourth on the campaign calendar to fifth, after Florida elbowed its way ahead. But it also reflected the state of the race, with the front-running Romney largely gliding above the competition and declining to engage his opponents in the kind of raucous debate that marked earlier contests.

Instead, he spent most of his time focusing on Obama.

Gingrich, who was late setting up his Nevada campaign, suffered from unfortunate timing: Registration for the caucuses was cut off Jan. 20, the day before the big South Carolina win that resuscitated his campaign and positioned him as the main rival to Romney.

Compounding his problems was a series of missteps — at one point he stood up Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval — that further undermined Gingrich's efforts in the state.

Nevada held out more promise to Paul. He finished second in the 2008 caucuses and boasted a loyal core of supporters in the tea-party movement, a significant power in Nevada politics, attracted by his anti-tax, limited-government platform.

On Saturday Paul already had moved on, campaigning in Minnesota, which holds its caucuses Tuesday. In a CNN interview, he ruled out any chance of quitting before Super Tuesday, when 11 states vote March 6. "I think we're doing so well, there's no reason to even think about that," Paul said.

The cash-poor Santorum also stumped a bit in Nevada, but his main focus appeared to be Missouri, which holds a nonbinding primary Tuesday. Gingrich failed to qualify for the ballot there, and Santorum hopes a strong showing will bolster his claim to be the anti-Romney alternative.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.

Special caucus

delays final tally

LAS VEGAS — Angry Ron Paul supporters overtook a special caucus Saturday night for some religious voters, prompting long lines, frantic GOP officials and voter-fraud complaints.

Party officials were still frantically trying to sign in voters an hour after the event was scheduled to start, delaying election results from Nevada's most populous county.

Part of the trouble was some Paul supporters had told voters they could show up for the late-night caucus at a suburban Jewish private school for whatever reason. But voters could participate only if they signed a declaration affirming that they couldn't vote during the regular morning caucuses because of their faith.

Most supporters signed the declaration, though some told a reporter they had missed the earlier caucuses for other reasons. One Paul supporter refused to sign, saying Republican leaders were encouraging voters to perjure themselves, and he refused to move from the head of the line as Jewish rabbis, families with young children and elderly voters waited behind him to enter.

The event for religious voters who observe Saturday as a holy day was intended as a way to reach out to Jews and Seventh-day Adventists. But it led to delays in the release of election results in Clark County, where most Nevada Republicans live, because local GOP officials refused to provide tallies until all ballots had been cast.

The Associated Press