McClatchy Washington Bureau

Print This Article

Hillary Clinton leads Barack Obama heading into Saturday's Democratic precinct caucuses in Nevada, while Mitt Romney has the edge among Republicans there, according to a new poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

With no history of large-scale presidential caucuses, however, Nevada's turnout is difficult to predict. Even among voters who favor certain candidates, 24 percent of Democrats and 35 percent of Republicans said they might change their minds.

The standings among Democrats:

• New York Sen. Clinton, 41 percent.
• Illinois Sen. Obama, 32 percent.
• Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, 14 percent.
• Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, 3 percent.
• Undecided, 10 percent.

Key ingredients of Clinton's lead in the poll include a 50-29 percent lead among Hispanics, who represent 15 percent of the likely vote, and a 51-26 percent lead among voters who rank the economy as their top concern.

Standings among Republicans:

• Former Massachusetts Gov. Romney, 34 percent.
• Arizona Sen. John McCain, 19 percent.
• Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 13 percent.
• Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, 8 percent.
• Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, 7 percent.
• Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, 6 percent.
• Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, 2 percent.
• Undecided, 11 percent.

Romney led among most groups. His greatest leads were among voters younger than 50 and non-evangelical voters.

The survey by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research was done for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and made available to McClatchy. Mason-Dixon is polling numerous other states for McClatchy and MSNBC this year.

The poll of 500 likely Democratic caucus attendees and 500 likely Republican caucus attendees was conducted Monday through Wednesday and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.