One week before Super Tuesday, Donald Trump is considered the favorite in Nevada Caucus, though the delegates rules for Silver State Republicans won't allow the GOP front runner to walk away with all of the delegates, as Trump did in South Carolina last weekend.
Much like the rules used in the Iowa Caucus, there is a straightforward way to award the 30 delegates at stake in Nevada, as you get one GOP convention delegate for each 3.33 percent of the vote.
Nevada is a tough place to poll, as we have seen in recent memory - it was in 2010 that every poll indicated Harry Reid would lose his Senate race to Sharron Angle.
That didn't happen.
So, what will play out in Nevada? This from the most influential political journalist in that state:
Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have been sniping more at each other than Donald Trump in Nevada, as Cruz yesterday fired his chief spokesman, who pushed a story that claimed Rubio had said insulting things about the Bible.
Donald Trump even weighed in on that story, continuing to hammer on Cruz as in South Carolina.
As for Rubio, he has emphasized his Nevada roots during campaign appearances in the state, as the Rubio family spent several years living in Las Vegas.
"My father was a bartender, he worked banquets at Sam's Town. My mother was a maid at the Imperial Palace," as Rubio tells of how his parents worked at the casinos in Vegas after arriving in the United States from Cuba.
Counting the votes in Nevada
Four years ago, Republicans had a near disaster on their hands in how the votes were counted in the Nevada GOP caucus.
This time, the Nevada Republican Party has set up a new process to deliver the caucus vote numbers back to party officials, and then have those results relayed to the Associated Press and other news media organizations.
"A smartphone picture of the tally sheet will be sent to the party," by officials at the various precincts around Nevada; in 2012, the process varied widely and resulted in major delays.
Only 33,000 votes were cast - but it took nearly two days to get the results tabulated and released.
"Nevada GOP shows how not to conduct a caucus," was one of the many headlines about the vote counting troubles.
About the Author
