Long Road For Candidates After Big Wins
WASHINGTON (CBS) ―
The voting blocs that made winners of Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain in weekend presidential contests don't automatically spell victory for them in the contests next up.Democrats vote in South Carolina on Saturday, followed by the Republican contest in Florida three days later.Clinton won Nevada Democratic voters by capturing majorities of whites and Hispanics. Barack Obama got eight in 10 blacks in the campaign's first true test of the two rivals' appeal to that constituency.But a different dynamic may await in South Carolina, where a repeat of that pattern by the state's racial groups might spell victory for Obama, an Illinois senator, because of the sheer number of blacks who make up the electorate. Should Obama get an emphatic majority of blacks there while whites give Clinton just more than half their vote, as they did in Nevada, Obama could have the numbers he needs.Then there is the gender factor.Clinton beat Obama in Nevada by 13 percentage points among women while they split the male vote. She also had prevailed among women in winning New Hampshire, though Obama narrowly took Iowa's women voters to win there.A mid-January poll of South Carolina Democrats by Mason-Dixon Polling Research Inc. showed Clinton and Obama splitting women while Obama led among men. That, too, is a formula for an Obama victory.As in Nevada, women are expected to comprise nearly six in 10 Democratic voters in South Carolina, which could give Clinton an edge should she retain her recent hold on female voters.Another South Carolina opportunity for Obama is that state's independents. He has won the independent vote in each state so far, and they are expected to be a fifth to one-fourth of the South Carolina vote  a bit more than the 15 percent share of Nevada's voters Saturday.The Republican race hopscotches down to Florida following McCain's narrow victory over Mike Huckabee in South Carolina. McCain heads into the Jan. 29 Florida primary heavily reliant on marginal segments of the GOP  like moderates, independents and less religious voters  though exit polls of South Carolina voters showed signs he may be growing on the party's mainstream.But it also presents the latest installment of a familiar test: Can he win the nomination without capturing its bedrock supporters, religious Christian and conservative voters?Huckabee's losing coalition in South Carolina read like the GOP's honor roll: the very conservative, frequent church-goers, white born again and evangelical Christians, those who want to deport illegal immigrants and make all abortions illegal, and people seeking a candidate who shares their values.McCain's supporters were an assortment of Republicans who seldom call the shots in the GOP. It's a ragtag list: moderates, independents, those who are not born again or evangelical, and people who pray only occasionally. Also, those who favor keeping at least some abortions legal and making some accommodations to illegal immigrants, are unhappy with President Bush and worry about the war in Iraq.Yet McCain was seen as the likeliest Republican to win the White House in November by 43 percent on Saturday  about double those who thought Huckabee or Mitt Romney had the best chance to win.In Florida's 2000 GOP presidential primary as McCain was losing the party's nomination to George W. Bush, conservatives were six in 10 voters, self-identified Republicans were eight in 10. He lost both groups badly.In South Carolina, though, McCain showed reasons for hope with mainline GOP voters.McCain and Huckabee basically split Republicans evenly and trailed Huckabee by 9 percentage points among conservatives. He also won half of the state's moderates, better than he had done in any contest this year, and four in 10 independents.Even among white, born again and evangelical Christians, McCain lost to Huckabee in South Carolina by a wide but respectable 43 percent to 27 percent margin. And he did well with people seeking experience and leadership.In South Carolina, though, McCain had no serious competition for moderate votes, while the conservative vote was divided among Huckabee, Romney and Fred Thompson. Florida will be different with Giuliani waiting there.As for Saturday's other winner, Romney's GOP Nevada win was essentially uncontested and signaled little about his prospects ahead.The data is from surveys conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International among 1,655 voters leaving 35 precincts in South Carolina's Republican primary and 1,098 voters entering 30 sites in Nevada's Democratic caucuses. The margin of sampling error for both was plus or minus 4 percentage points.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney appeared be the winner Saturday in the Nevada Republican Caucuses in the bid to be the next President of the United States.

With 2% of the votes counted, Romney was leading his nearest competitors by more than a 3 to 1 margin, or having 45% of the votes. Romney, a Republican who polls between second and third nationally, appears to have been helped by concerns over the health of the U.S. economy, as well as worries over immigration. This is Romney's third win after winning his home state of Michigan's Republican primary on Tuesday and the Wyoming primary which was overshadowed by other contests

According to entry polls conducted by CNN on Nevada voters, immigration and the economy topped the list of concerns - far exceeding concerns about Iraq and the War on Terror, issues generally thought to be weak spots for the Romney campaign. 38% of those polled believed the economy comes first.

U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-TX), a long-shot candidate who once ran on the Libertarian ticket, and U.S. Senator John McCain were in a fight for second. Paul has 14% with McCain currently trailing at 13%. Democrats also cast votes Saturday, with results expected later in the afternoon.

The Nevada caucuses were largely overshadowed by the Republican South Carolina primary, which is being held on the same day. This was part of a strange campaign irony, as Nevada will send more delegates to the Republican National Convention in September. South Carolina was stripped of half its delegates after violating party rules by holding a primary contest before Super Tuesday.

New York state Senator Hillary Clinton has won the Nevada Democratic Caucus with 52% of the votes needed to win beating her opponent Barack Obama by 8% who had 44% of the votes. Hillary's win was boosted by minority Latino and women voters. There was some controversy over the fact that some at-large Democratic caucuses would be held in casinos, giving casino workers a chance to vote, the Nevada State Education Association and six individuals filed a lawsuit claiming this was unfair and would give more delegates then other locations and that this violates state law. Due to the fact that some of the Nevada State Education Association's leaders have endorsed Clinton and that the fact the lawsuit was filed two days after the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 endorsed Obama, lead some political commentators to state it was a proxy battle between Obama and Clinton.

Image:Mitt Romney, 2006.jpg|Former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA)
Image:Hillary Clinton 2007-3 cropped.jpg|Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY)