Romney Joins Democrats to Campaign in Nevada

LAS VEGAS _ Alone among the Republican presidential candidates, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney barnstormed Nevada on Friday in an effort to sweep the state’s neglected GOP presidential caucuses Saturday.

Romney arrived in the state late Thursday, pulling out of South Carolina, where polls suggested he was going to finish third, at best, in the Republican primary there, also Saturday. His strategists hoped a Nevada win would add to the perception of momentum from Romney’s decisive victory in Michigan on Tuesday.

"Washington is broken," Romney told about 600 supporters jammed in a warehouse in southwest Las Vegas Thursday night, reprising the message that worked in Michigan. Romney stuck to that theme Friday, while also emphasizing his hard line against illegal immigration, a popular stand with Republicans here.

Meanwhile, the three leading Democratic contenders had some of their sharpest exchanges of the campaign Friday as they made their final pitches before their party’s caucuses Saturday. Nevada is playing a prominent early role in the party’s nomination process for the first time ever.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois suggested in Reno that New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, would be "a president whose plans change with the politics of the moment," according to the Associated Press.

Clinton and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards jumped on Obama, who was quoted telling the Reno Gazette-Journal editorial board that Republican president Ronald Reagan "changed the trajectory of America in a way that Bill Clinton did not" and that the GOP had been the "party of ideas" for the last 15 years, AP reported.

"That’s not the way I remember the last 10 to 15 years," Hillary Clinton said in Las Vegas, adding that the GOP had driven the nation into debt and proposed privatizing Social Security, among other ideas she considers bad.

"Ronald Reagan is not an example of change for a presidential candidate running in the Democratic Party," Edwards said in Las Vegas. He called the late president "the man who busted unions, the man who did everything in his power to destroy the organized labor movement, the man who created a tax structure that favored the richest Americans."

Republicans will caucus at 100 sites scattered throughout the state, about one third of them in metropolitan Las Vegas. Party officials expect about 30,000 to 40,000 participants to show up at the caucuses, which have not been held on the GOP side for 20 years.

The state has seen no television ads from the Republican candidates and few appearances.

GOP candidates chose to concentrate on the Michigan and South Carolina primaries, while Democrats have had nearly two weeks to focus on Nevada, the only contest between New Hampshire on Jan. 8 and their Jan. 26 primary in South Carolina.

"It’s a combination of geography, time and strategy," said state GOP spokesman Steve Wark. "It takes an entire day to fly out here and back. With the condensed calendar, that’s a big strategic and financial decision."

A Las Vegas Review-Journal poll, conducted by Mason-Dixon Research, published Friday found Romney leading on the GOP side _ 34 percent, to 19 percent for Arizona Sen. John McCain, and 13 percent for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. The survey of 500 likely caucus-goers had a margin-of-error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Romney’s Mormon religion, which was a handicap in Iowa with its heavy concentration of evangelical Christian voters, is not a burden in Nevada, analysts say. About seven percent of the state’s residents belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and Mormons are prominent in Nevada business and politics.

Democrats will caucus at 520 sites across the state, mostly schools, churches and community centers near where voters live _ though there will be nine "at-large" caucus sites in casinos so shift workers can participate.

That accommodation became a flashpoint, as Clinton supporters with the state teachers’ union filed suit to block the special caucus sites two days after Obama received the endorsement of Culinary Workers Local 226, a 60,000-member union that representing workers on the Las Vegas Strip. The teachers argued that the system, by accommodating the casino workers, did not treat all voters equally.

On Thursday, a federal judge denied the teachers’ request. The decision was widely seen as a boost for Obama, though Clinton enjoyed the support of much of the state’s Democratic Party establishment.

The Las Vegas Review Journal poll found Clinton with a lead of 9 percentage points _ 41 percent, to 32 percent for Obama. Edwards had 14 percent in the survey of 500 likely Democratic caucus-goers, which was subject to an error margin of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.