LAS VEGAS -- It's likely the large GOP field will be narrowed Tuesday night but the candidates will have primary contests in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida before they come to Nevada next month.
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney won 51 percent of the caucus in Nevada four years ago and he hopes to do the same again. There are 417,000 active registered Republicans in Nevada. All seven candidates running for the GOP nomination want the majority of those voters to stand up and speak on their behalf at the 29 caucus sites on Feb. 4, 2012.
"That's identifying the right voters, persuading them that Governor Romney is the right choice for Nevada and for the White House, ultimately turning them out on caucus day," said Ryan Erwin, senior advisor to the Romney campaign.
According to the most recent 8 News NOW/Las Vegas Review-Journal poll, 600 voters chose President Obama over Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich. Romney set up camp in Las Vegas months ago and he's made five trips to Nevada in the past year. Romney's senior advisor says it's about energizing Republicans to show up.
"Four years ago, 44,000 Republicans turned out to vote on caucus day. That's a far cry from the several hundred thousand that normally turn out for a Republican primary. It's a much smaller group but more active and interested in politics," said Erwin.
Unlike Romney and Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich didn't have much of an operation in the Silver State a few weeks ago. Now he has 17 full-time volunteers and he'll will fly to Nevada 48 hours before the caucus. His co-finance director says support will come when voters hear what they want to hear.
"The only thing people care about right now is who's going to create jobs, who's going to create an atmosphere for entrepreneurs like myself to be able to create more jobs," said George Harris, co-finance director of Gingrich campaign.
All GOP contenders will preach their message over the next month and how Nevada voters react could impact the country.
"We, as a small state, play a critically important key state role, both in the nominating process as fifth in the nation and first in the west, and then in the general election. Ultimately, we may decide who the president of the United States is," Erwin said.
There's an important group that could swing left or right. There are 182,000 people who haven't declared a party which means they won't factor into the caucus unless they register Republican.
