Energized Romney grabs big win in Nevada

Fueled by momentum and the Mormon vote, Mitt Romney scored an easy victory Saturday in Nevada's GOP presidential caucuses, winning a majority of conservatives, tea party believers and Republicans who say he's the best candidate to beat President Barack Obama.

Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul battled for second. And the former House speaker vowed to continue his campaign through the Republican National Convention, going more negative against Romney to win if he has to. Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, was trailing in last place.

"You know this is not the first time you gave me your vote of confidence," Romney said, referring to his 2008 GOP caucus win in Nevada. "And this time I'm going to take it to the White House."

At deadline, Romney led with 43 percent of the vote. Gingrich followed with 26 percent, while Paul had 18 percent and Santorum trailed with 13 percent. The caucus votes were being reported on Twitter by the Nevada Republican Party, which had counted 819, or 45 percent, of the state's 1,835 precincts by 11 p.m. Most of the unreported votes were in Clark County, where only 62 of 1,073 precincts were counted. There were also five uncounted precincts in Lander County, but the tallies for the other 15 counties were complete.

In an evening victory party before most results were in, an exuberant Romney and his wife, Ann, thanked up to 2,000 cheering supporters for backing him a second time for president. The win helps speed his path toward the GOP nomination, barring an upset by one of his remaining foes.

Romney's 10-minute speech at Red Rock Resort in Summerlin was punctuated by frequent applause and cheers and chants of "Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!" and "Romney! Romney! Romney!"-- as if he had won the GOP nomination itself and not just the first presidential vote in the West, his third state win after picking up New Hampshire and Florida.

Romney quickly shifted to attacking Obama, noting Nevada is suffering more than any other state with an unemployment rate of 12.6 percent and record home foreclosure rates as well. His wife pointed out Romney had now won three key general election battlegrounds, including the Silver State.

"Mr. President, Nevada has had enough of your kind of help," Romney said, adding the rest of the country is ready to get rid of him, too. "Mr. President, America has also had enough of your kind of help."

Ignoring his GOP opponents, Romney asked for Nevadans' votes in the fall against Obama.

"This president's misguided policies made these tough times last longer," said Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and business­man who said he'll revive the economy and private enterprise. "When I'm elected president my priority will be worrying about your job, not saving my own."

A half an hour later across town, before it was clear in what place Gingrich would finish, he held a combative news conference and disputed suggestions that he would withdraw from the race. Gingrich said he's planning to campaign this week in several states, including the key battleground of Ohio.

"We will continue to campaign all the way to Tampa," said Gingrich, speaking to reporters at The Venetian and referring to the site of next summer's Republican National Convention.

Gingrich went on to criticize Romney, saying the reason the Republican front-runner is winning is because he has far outspent Gingrich and has run negative and false ads. He called Romney "blatantly dishonest," and suggested he would fight attack with attack from now on.

"I stayed relentlessly positive in Iowa and I lost 22 points," Gingrich said. "I think it's terrible that the American system is reduced to negative ads, some of them false. I wish it wasn't happening."

Asked if he would run a more positive race than Romney, Gingrich said he can't afford to be nice.

"If you're not willing to stand and fight then you have to get out of the race," said Gingrich, who appeared tired, his voice cracking as he spoke. "And I think that's a very sad comment."

Gingrich, who won the South Carolina primary a couple of weeks ago, noted that former President Ronald Reagan lost five contests before he became the GOP nominee. Gingrich also predicted he would do at least as well in the Nevada caucuses as Sen. John McCain did four years ago. McCain won 13 percent of the vote, finishing just behind Paul, who got 14 percent, and far behind Romney at 51 percent.

"McCain went on to relative success," he said, although the 2008 GOP nominee lost to Obama.

At stake Saturday were Nevada's 28 GOP delegates to the convention. They'll be awarded based on the percentage each candidate gets. If a candidate wins 50 percent, he would get 14 delegates.

An entrance poll by CNN showed that one-quarter of the GOP caucus-goers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the same religion as Romney. And 91 percent of the Mormons voted for him in the caucus, about the same as four years ago, the poll found.

Romney also did well among conservatives, winning 51 percent of those who said they were "very conservative," compared to 24 percent for Gingrich, 15 percent for Paul and 10 percent for Santorum. Romney also dominated among Republicans who said they "strongly support" the tea party, winning 40 percent compared to 31 percent for Gingrich, 18 percent for Paul and 11 percent for Santorum.

Romney, who is seen as the most moderate candidate, was winning over conservatives based on his argument that he has the best chance to win the general election, by drawing crossover voters and independents. He won 74 percent of the vote of Republican caucus-goers who said the most important candidate quality is the ability to defeat Obama next November. Only 18 percent said Gingrich could beat Obama compared with 5 percent for Paul and 3 percent for Santorum.

Stephanie and Darrin Stewart, a Mormon couple who voted for Romney at Green Valley High School, typified his supporters. They share his religion and the belief he can win the White House.

"He's just a good man," said Stephanie Stewart. "He has moral integrity and I think he's moderate enough to beat Obama. I really think he can fix the economy better than the others."

Romney also benefited from momentum his Florida victory provided, winning 48 percent support from Republicans who said they decided in the "last few days" whom to back in the GOP caucuses.

Keenan Raftery, who voted for Romney at a caucus at Becker Middle School, said he didn't know whom he was going to support going into the meeting Saturday. But most people spoke up for Romney, saying he was the Republicans best bet to retake the White House in 2012.

"I liked Ron Paul, but I think the electability argument put me over the top for Romney," he said.

There was confusion among some caucus-goers in the Las Vegas Valley who said they didn't know the precinct meetings started at 9 a.m. sharp. An unknown number of Republicans missed an opportunity to vote. Others didn't understand the process, which in Clark County required people to participate in the party meeting before filling out a straw poll ballot.

"We missed all the action," said Tom McGuire, who said he and his wife, Mary, checked in at Green Valley High School to register to caucus but then left to run errands. They thought they could return in a couple of hours to vote, but it was over by the time they got back to the school.

"I was going to vote for Newt," he said, adding so was his wife. "The lady told us it was going to last a couple of hours. It was our own fault we missed it. Don't tell Newt."

A special post-sundown caucus for Jews and Seventh-day Adventists who couldn't meet during the day for religious reasons, held the most drama and held up results for Clark County and the entire state.

Hundreds of people crowded into the Adelson Educational Campus in Summerlin for the special 7 p.m. caucus where there were repeated clashes --- and much colorful language -- as nonreligious caucus-goers trying to crash the event fought with GOP officials.

Paul's people were the most combative, but in the end their man was the surprising winner. Many of the Paul supporters signed declarations stating they needed to attend the evening event because religious obligations prevented them from caucusing earlier.

Paul won with 183 votes, Romney got 61, Gingrich 57 and Santorum 16.

Critics believed the caucus was tilted in favor of Gingrich since Sands Corps. Chief Sheldon Adelson and his wife have donated $10 million to a political action committee backing Gingrich.

Adelson, who is Jewish, cast a ballot at the caucus but didn't say a word.

Review-Journal reporters Adrienne Packer, Benjamin Spillman and Lawrence Mower contributed to this report. Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow @lmyerslvrj on Twitter.