Romney won the Nevada caucuses in a landslide. Here are ten things you need to know today.
- The Sunday shows line-up: Rick Santorum, VA Gov. Bob McDonnell, Rep. J.C. Watts on Fox News Sunday; Gov. Martin O’Malley and McDonnell on CNN’s State of the Union; Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani on CBS’s Face the Nation; Newt Gingrich, Michael Bloomberg on NBC’s Meet the Press; Ron Paul on This Week.
- Upcoming poll shows Santorum is replacing Gingrich as the ‘anti-Romney: Public Policy Polling will release polls of Colorado and Minnesota at 10 a.m. But they’ve been tweeted a few clues about their findings, and they point to the fact that Rick Santorum may be edging out Newt Gingrich as the anti-Mitt: Santorum has the highest favorability in Colorado and Minnesota and leads among evangelical and Tea Party voters — voters Gingrich had been siphoning off.
- Adelson open to aiding Romney: Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife have already given $10 million to the super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich. Despite his support for his friend, reports the New York Times, Adelson has assured Mitt Romney that he will support his campaign if he becomes the nominee and is willing to put up a significant amount of money to defeat Barack Obama.
- Romney camp downplays role of Mormon vote in Nevada: Although Mitt Romney received the overwhelming support of Mormons in Nevada, his campaign quickly downplayed the idea that mormons handed Romney a victory. A tweet from Romney spokesperson Eric Fehrnstrom made this point: “Mormons make up one-quarter of Nevada caucus voters. Take them out of picture and Romney still wins the state decisively.”
- Romney made inroads among the GOP base: In Nevada, Romney won among voting blocks previously out of reach. The Romney camp stressed in an email blast that they on Tea Partiers, evangelicals, the “very conservative,” as well as Catholics and protestants — not just among Mormons. These facts will likely become part of Romney’s argument about his ability to rally the base and beat President Obama.
- Democrats stress enthusiasm gap in Nevada: The Nevada Democratic Party is stressing that low turnout in the Nevada caucuses shows that voters are not excited about Mitt Romney. The turnout statistics they are touting include: Washoe County, a swing county, “only saw 6,700 voters turn out compared to 11,000-14,000 in 2008.
- More voters voted for Angle than in Nevada Saturday: The Nevada Democratic Party has an embarrassing turnout statistic comparing turnout to the Nevada caucuses and in 2010’s Senate primary: “more Republicans voted for Sharron Angle in the 2010 midterm Senate Primary (70,424) than are projected to have turned out for this year’s Republican Presidential Caucus in total.”
- Paul defends Romney’s comments on the ‘very poor’: Ron Paul defended Mitt Romney’s comment that he is not “concerned about the very poor,” saying he just didn’t believe that was “in his heart.”
- Democrats see Komen Foundation fiasco as working in their favor: A memo from pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA. The backlash to the Komen Foundation’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood this week is indicative of how far to the right Republicans — and Republican candidates — have moved on family planning. They see this as a winning issue in the general election.
- Candidates take a break after Nevada: After making their rounds on the Sunday shows, the candidates will be taking it easy — or at least they haven’t released public campaign schedules. Except Rick Santorum, who will be campaigning in Minnesota. Gingrich heads to Colorado Monday.
