Lower profile, but more delegates?

Romney choice of Nevada over S.C. may pay off

As the sun rose yesterday, Mitt Romney listened to a staff members as they flew over Nevada on his way to a campaign stop. (L.M. Otero/Associated Press)

HENDERSON, Nev. - While his main rivals slugged it out yesterday across South Carolina, fighting for an edge in today's hotly contested primary, Mitt Romney hopscotched around Nevada, angling to win a lower-profile contest today that could bring a bigger reward.

Focusing on Nevada and downplaying South Carolina is a gamble, but one that appeared more savvy yesterday with the publication of a new poll indicating that Romney has a 15-percentage-point lead.

Romney says he is focused not on the glory of winning a major battle in the first Southern primary, but on the less glamorous task of collecting the delegates needed to win the nomination at the Republican National Convention in September. South Carolina, he frequently points out, awards just 24 delegates to Nevada's 31.

"I want the nomination," Romney, who has been in Nevada since Thursday, said during a campaign stop at the Claim Jumper restaurant in Henderson. "I'm not just looking for a gold star on the forehead."

By wooing Nevadans - Ron Paul is the only other Republican making a serious push in the Silver State - Romney can also reinforce his argument that he is competing in every state, not just cherry-picking the most favorable.

"I think it's going to be real hard to win the presidency if by not showing up in Nevada you communicate that Nevada doesn't matter to you as much as it does to the other guys," he told reporters in Reno yesterday. "And I felt the same way about Iowa and New Hampshire, Michigan, Wyoming."

But Romney's tactic also reflects his troubles in the topsy-turvy GOP race.

He initially saw South Carolina as a key part of his strategy to sweep the early-voting states and build unstoppable momentum. He spent millions of dollars building a formidable ground organization there, and he bought far more advertising than his competitors. His TV ads aired 5,257 times between February and Tuesday in the major South Carolina markets - more than John McCain's and Mike Huckabee's combined, Nielsen reported yesterday.

But he finished second to Huckabee in Iowa and second to McCain in New Hampshire. And even after winning the Michigan primary on Tuesday, polls suggested that in South Carolina he was behind McCain, who has support from military veterans and the state's Republican establishment, and Huckabee, who has allies in the state's large evangelical population, and was jockeying for third with Fred Thompson, who has made the state a final stand.

So this week, Romney worked hard to lower expectations for his performance in South Carolina and moved on to Nevada.

The fast-growing Silver State looks to be much friendlier territory for Romney. The state, founded by Mormons, has the fourth-highest percentage of Mormons of any state - about 9 percent of the nearly 2.5 million residents. It also has a record of electing them to high office, including Harry Reid, the top Democrat in the US Senate. Living in Nevada, "you've got a Catholic on one side and a Mormon on the other, so nobody thinks twice about these things," said Ryan Erwin, a consultant for Romney's campaign in the Silver State. "It's really a nonfactor."

Sensing an opening, Romney has visited Nevada seven times and his son, Josh, who lives in neighboring Utah, has made several more visits, including a tour of a gold mine. Romney's campaign has sent out five mail pieces since November and has run two radio ads - one highlighting his opposition to illegal immigration and the other his opposition to gay marriage.

The push has apparently paid off. He won endorsements yesterday from the Reno Gazette-Journal and Thursday from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and he campaigned this week with Kenny Guinn, a former Nevada governor, and Dawn Gibbons, the wife of the current governor.

A Review-Journal survey published yesterday indicated that Romney had a 34 percent to 19 percent edge over McCain. Huckabee was in third with 13 percent, followed by Thompson with 8 percent, Paul with 7 percent, and Rudy Giuliani with 6 percent.

"I told him that Nevada would support him enthusiastically, and they have," said Barbara F. Vucanovich, a former Nevada congresswoman and an early supporter.

Paul called yesterday for the party to consider postponing the caucuses due to "multiple inconsistencies," but the state Republican Party dismissed the allegation. "We would hope that the Paul campaign would go act like adults and not try to set up straw men to make up for their lack of organizing," said Steve Wark, a caucus spokesman.

Under the rules of Nevada's Republican caucuses, the delegates are not officially pledged to support the winning candidate at the party's convention in September. But Romney's advisers said they do not expect any defections.

While Romney's camp worked to get out the vote, placing thousands of phone calls and holding rallies across Nevada, the decision to leave South Carolina reverberated in the Palmetto State.

"I would love him to have started here and spent every day of the campaign here, but the governor's playing a 50-state strategy and it's smart in that context to absolutely go to Nevada," said Terry Sullivan, Romney's state director in South Carolina. "This is obviously going to come down to a delegate race, and anybody who doesn't see that just isn't paying attention."

In an indication of the careful balance Romney is trying to strike, he flew last night to Burbank, Calif. to appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

The reason?

"I figure it's the only way I can be in South Carolina and Nevada at the same time," he said, chuckling. "Mike Huckabee did it before Iowa and he won - so maybe it'll do the same thing for me."

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.