Romney takes Nevada

LAS VEGAS — Mitt Romney won Saturday's Nevada GOP presidential caucus, thanks largely to overwhelming support from the Silver State's sizable number of like-minded LDS voters.

"Today, the people of Nevada voted for change in Washington," Romney said, calling the need for change even more apparent because of the nation's economic challenges. "With a career spent turning around business, creating jobs and imposing fiscal discipline, I am ready to get my hands on Washington and turn it inside out."

Romney gambled — wisely it turns out — on securing another first-place finish in Nevada by cutting short his campaigning in South Carolina, which on Saturday went for Sen. John McCain of Arizona in a tight race with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Romney, who placed fourth in South Carolina, bet on Mormon-friendly Nevada rather than South Carolina — the first Southern state to hold its primary in the 2008 presidential campaign — because of the large number of evangelical Christian voters there, many who don't consider Mormons to be fellow Christians. It's widely believed evangelical Christian voters contributed to Romney's Jan. 3 loss to Huckabee in Iowa.

In terms of delegates, Romney's wager paid off handsomely with him capturing 17 of Nevada's 31 available delegates. By comparison, only 24 total GOP delegates were up for grabs in South Carolina, where Romney was shutout after a disappointing fourth place finish — marking the first time this primary season that he didn't finish first or second in a contest.

Romney's strategy may have cost him some momentum nationally, however, as South Carolina's hotly contested primary received more media attention than Nevada's lightly contested GOP Caucus. The only other Republican candidate besides Romney to campaign seriously in Nevada was Texas Congressman Ron Paul — a perennial also-ran who scored a stunning second place Nevada finish.

The same couldn't be said for the Nevada Democratic Caucuses, where Hillary Clinton edged Barack Obama 51 percent to 45 percent in a race that garnered national, even international, coverage. But due to the procedural quirks of awarding delegates, Obama actually received 13 delegates in Nevada to Clinton's 12, an AP analysis of caucus results showed.

Exit polling showed whites, women and Hispanics propelled Clinton to victory, while Nevada blacks overwhelmingly backed Obama. Obama continued to show strength with young voters — earning the vote of nearly six in 10 caucus-goers under age 30 — but they made up only 13 percent of the votes cast. Clinton dwarfed that advantage by winning 60 percent of voters over age 60, who were more than a third of the electorate