First Nevada

I don't know if it was because of the Super Bowl, but Clark County (where Las Vegas is located) took two full days to finish counting the caucus ballots. In the end, it didn't matter much. Mitt Romney took the state handily with 50% of the total votes. Newt took 21% for second place in what had to be a disappointment for Uncle Ron. Uncle Ron fell to third with 19% of the vote and Rick Santorum rounded out with 10%.


Unlike most caucus states (such as tomorrow's Colorado and Minnesota), delegate allocations are awarded at this level. The individual delegates won't be selected until the state convention, but the awards have been decided. Mr. Romney will receive 14 delegates, Newt gets 6, Uncle Ron 5, and Mr. Santorum 3. That brings the hard total up to 73 (81 soft) for Mr. Romney, 29 (33) for Newt, 8 (14) for Uncle Ron, and 3 (9) for Mr. Santorum.

There are three contests tomorrow: the aforementioned Colorado and Minnesota Caucuses and the Missouri primary. No delegates will be awarded at any of these contests, although they will probably have influences on the state conventions and the actual Missouri Caucuses that will be held on March 17. At the moment, Mr. Romney has a strong lead in Colorado with Mr. Santorum holding the second spot (mostly due to his support from former congressman Tom Tancredo). Mr. Santorum has a very narrow lead in Minnesota as well over Mr. Romney, but I think Minnesota could swing wildly during the actual caucuses. Mr. Santorum is also leading in Missouri (helped strongly by the fact that Newt failed to get on the ballot). In terms of actual delegate allocation, tomorrow won't matter for much. However, if things break for Mr. Santorum as much as they seem to be, it would provide him with a much needed surge in momentum and a revaulting back into the primary "not-Romney" position.