Obama takes narrow lead over Clinton in Nevada

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks with Nevada residents at a roundtable discussion on the mortgage crisis in Reno, Nevada on January 14, 2008. (REUTERS/Max Whittaker)

RENO, Nevada (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama took a small lead over rival Hillary Clinton before Nevada's caucus, the party's next contest, according to a poll released on Monday.

The Reno Gazette-Journal poll of 500 likely caucus goers found 32 percent favoring Obama, 30 percent for Clinton and 27 percent for former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

With the poll's margin of error of 4.5 percentage points, the top prize in Saturday's caucus was up for grabs.

"There was a poll in New Hampshire that didn't quite work out the way everybody thought, so if I ever put any stock in polls, that ended it," Obama told reporters.

Nevada holds the third Democratic contest after Iowa, which the Illinois senator won, and New Hampshire, where Clinton pulled ahead despite Obama's surge in polls before the vote. Edwards came in second in Iowa and third in New Hampshire.

Nevada is holding a caucus for the first time and turnout was uncertain.

In a caucus, voters must dedicate one or two hours at a set time to debate and then stand in groups to express their candidate preference. Because it is a new process and falls on the first day of a three-day weekend, party officials expect only a small percentage of registered voters to show up.

In a state primary, voting is directly for candidates.

Clinton, a U.S. senator from New York and former first lady, had a strong lead in Nevada polls as recently as a month ago and has the backing of many in the Democratic Party there.

Obama received a boost last week when the state's largest union, the Culinary Union, endorsed him and began urging its 60,000 members to show up en mass on Saturday.

Yet a lawsuit challenging caucus locations inside the famous Las Vegas casino hotels where many Culinary Union workers are employed could blunt the impact of union backing.

Among Republicans, the Reno Gazette-Journal poll showed U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona leading with 22 percent. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani had 18 percent, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee 16 percent, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 15 percent.

Romney has devoted the greatest effort to the state among Republicans, and a loss here would be a blow to his national effort.

Obama campaigned on Monday in Reno, Nevada's second casino city, meeting at a roundtable with four voters affected by home foreclosure problems and then attending a rally of about 2,500 people. Nevada has the nation's highest foreclosure rate, four times the national average, hitting onE out of every 152 households.

One woman said she had lost her home to foreclosure, and another said she had fallen behind in payments as her husband, a policeman, fell ill with cancer and was in a car accident.

Clinton, who would be the first woman president, has visited Las Vegas and Reno in recent days, also to highlight the economy and the foreclosure crisis.

Edwards has not campaigned in Nevada lately but will appear with Clinton and Obama at a debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)