LAS VEGAS - Political junkies love the 2012 presidential primary season. Campaigns for Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Ron Paul have dumped more than $350,000 each on Nevada airwaves. Ads supporting Newt Gingrich could come this week.
Voters have also noticed the ads, but some voters are already burned out.
"I haven't really been focusing too much on the coverage just because it's a bunch of mudslinging no matter what," voter Anastasia Smith said.
"They try to do name calling. It's all because of the power. They want to get the power," voter Hadi Wadood added.
David Damore is an associate professor of political science at UNLV. "If they're tired now, wait until November," he said.
He expects as many as 70,000 Republicans will turn out for Saturday's Nevada caucus.
"In a primary or a caucus, the most devoted people are the ones who come out," Damore said. "This isn't for the marginal voters who might be engaged in a presidential election, vote in a general election, and we don't see them for four years. These are the sort of political warriors."
To win over those political warriors, presidential candidate Rick Santorum will stump in Las Vegas Tuesday and watch the Florida returns from here. Ron Paul is holding a call to arms rally Tuesday. Mitt Romney has a rally of his own scheduled Wednesday. Gingrich has campaign events scheduled in Nevada, but CNN Reports his campaign maintains low expectations for winning the state.
"It seems like they're doing a lot of the work for the Democrats now by tearing everyone down. It's getting pretty vicious," Democratic voter Kenny Retzl said.
Two hundred and seventy nine days still remain until the November general election when the Republican nominee faces President Barack Obama. Election fatigue or not, Damore says Nevada may see record turnout November 6.
