McCain gains edge with win; Clinton prevails in Nevada

By Mark Z. Barabak

Jan. 20, 2008 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

LAS VEGAS —

Hillary Rodham Clinton easily won the Nevada caucuses Saturday, seizing the upper hand against Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential race heads South for their next showdown in six days.

John Edwards, once regarded as the favorite in Nevada because of his union ties, finished a distant third, pushing him further to the margins of the contest.

On the GOP side, Mitt Romney prevailed in a nonbinding straw poll that had no bearing on the awarding of the party’s nominating delegates.

Clinton claimed victory at an impromptu rally amid scattered slot machines at the Planet Hollywood hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. “I guess this is how the West was won,” the New York senator said to an exuberant audience that chanted “H-R-C! H-R-C!”

Obama, who left the state after a morning spent mingling with workers at the Mirage Hotel & Casino, issued a statement also claiming victory. He asserted -- erroneously, state party officials said -- that he had won more national convention delegates than Clinton.

“We’re proud of the campaign we ran,” Obama said. “. . . We performed well all across the state, including rural areas where Democrats have traditionally struggled.”

Still, his showing was a setback for the Illinois senator, who, for the second straight contest, trailed Clinton among women and the less affluent -- the core of Democratic primary voters.

Clinton swamped Obama among Latinos, whose import will increase Feb. 5 when the presidential race fans out across the country to a number of states -- including California -- with significant Latino populations.

In nearly complete returns, Clinton had 51% of the Nevada vote to Obama’s 45% and Edwards’ 4%.

Despite his showing, former Sen. Edwards of North Carolina vowed to press on, looking ahead to this coming Saturday’s Democratic vote in South Carolina.

“The race to the nomination is a marathon and not a sprint, and we’re committed to making sure the voices of all the voters in the remaining 47 states are heard,” campaign manager David Bonior said in a written statement.

Among Republicans, former Massachusetts Gov. Romney was the only top-tier contender to spend serious time in the state. He recycled the message that brought him Tuesday’s victory in Michigan, promising change and portraying himself as an economic Mr. Fix-It at a time of increased voter anxiety.

“With a career spent turning around businesses, creating jobs and imposing fiscal discipline, I am ready to get my hands on Washington and turn it inside out,” Romney said in a victory statement issued as he flew from Las Vegas to Florida, which hosts the next GOP contest, Jan. 29.

Romney finished with 51% of the Republican vote, followed by Rep. Ron Paul of Texas with 14% and Sen. John McCain of Arizona with 13%.

But the GOP contest was overshadowed by the party’s South Carolina primary the same day and by the increasingly nasty fight on the Democratic side.

Clinton and Obama -- with a win apiece after Iowa and New Hampshire -- sharpened their rhetoric in Nevada. Their supporters, most notably within the ranks of organized labor, also stepped up internecine warfare.

Much of the skirmishing involved the Culinary Union, the state’s biggest and most powerful labor group, which endorsed Obama the day after Clinton’s New Hampshire win. Her allies filed a lawsuit denouncing caucus rules that created nine “at-large” precincts along the Las Vegas Strip, suggesting it gave Obama an unfair advantage among the union’s many casino workers.

A federal judge rejected the suit, but that did not end the acrimony. The Clinton and Obama camps continued to trade charges of intimidation and voter suppression after the votes were counted.

There were sharp divisions even within the Culinary Union, as was evident at one of Saturday’s casino caucuses, inside a ballroom at the Egyptian-themed Luxor hotel.

As caucusgoers arrived, they walked through a cordon of partisans. On one side were Clinton supporters handing out T-shirts that said: “I support my union. I support Hillary.” On the other were Obama supporters handing out blue lapel stickers.

Some Clinton backers said they came just to show the union they would speak their minds. “I’m not going to be anybody’s puppet,” said Heather Humphries, 32, a cocktail waitress at the Mandalay Bay resort. Like many, she came to caucus in her work clothes, throwing on a suede coat to cover her skimpy red dress.

Others on break -- housekeepers, doormen, casino cashiers -- also showed up in uniform; several white chef toques poked up from the crowd inside the vast ballroom, giving the gathering a much different flavor than Iowa’s caucuses.

Enticed by the fierce competition between Clinton and Obama -- and the opportunity to cast a truly meaningful vote -- Democrats surged to the caucuses in record numbers, repeating a pattern seen in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Organizers were hoping merely to top the 38,500 people who attended the 1976 caucuses that put Iowa on the political map. Instead, more than 116,000 Democratic voters and an additional 44,000 Republicans came out on a sunny Saturday, lining up at rural outposts and the precincts improvised amid the casino clamor. Some locations ran out of ballots and other paperwork because of the unexpected flood of participants.

“If you don’t like the way things are going and you don’t bother to vote, it’s a travesty. It’s hypocrisy,” said Edward Peterson, 41, a casino analyst who attended the Luxor hotel caucus and backed Clinton after his first pick, Edwards, was eliminated for lack of support.

Clinton won Saturday by re-creating the coalition that carried her to victory in New Hampshire. She edged past Obama among those identifying themselves as Democrats -- he won the independents, a much smaller share of the vote -- and she also beat Obama among women, according to an entrance poll conducted for the Associated Press and major television networks.

Half of those who caucused named the economy as the nation’s most significant problem, and nearly half of them backed Clinton. She also led among those citing healthcare as the top issue, whereas she and Obama split the vote of those who said Iraq was their uppermost concern.

Obama “needs to drill down with his economic policies,” said Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist watching the race from the sideline. “He is losing low-to-middle-income voters. He’s got to touch people who feel they have been left behind.”

Fitting for such a cantankerous contest, the results Saturday produced renewed squabbling over the national nominating delegates that will eventually be awarded.

The Obama camp claimed he edged out Clinton in national delegates despite the overall vote, citing the state’s allocation formula. But Jill Derby, head of the Nevada Democratic Party, pointed out that Saturday’s vote was the first step in a lengthy process: National delegates won’t be awarded for several months.

Obama, vying to become the nation’s first black president, could enjoy an edge next weekend in South Carolina, where up to half the electorate may be African American.

He could face a tougher time when several states with large Latino populations -- including Arizona, Colorado, New Jersey and New Mexico -- weigh in on Feb. 5. Entrance interviews Saturday in Nevada showed Clinton with two-thirds of the Latino vote.

“Women and Hispanics have put her in charge looking ahead,” said Peter Hart, a veteran Democratic pollster who is neutral in the contest. “Obama, in his introductory phase, was exceptionally well received. Now he needs to move to Phase Two, and that is explaining why an Obama president would make a difference and what he would do.”

mark.barabak@latimes.com

Times staff writers Seema Mehta and Peter Nicholas in Nevada and researcher Nona Yates contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Nevada caucuses

Democrats

Hillary Rodham Clinton... 51%

Barack Obama... 45%

John Edwards... 4%

98% of precincts reporting

Republicans

Mitt Romney... 51%

Ron Paul... 14%