Prometheus 6

But the delegate count under the intricate rules of the caucuses appeared to favor Mr. Obama because of his support from a wide swath of the state, giving him 13 delegates compared with 12 for Mrs. Clinton....

“We came from over 25 points behind to win more national convention delegates than Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Obama said, “because we performed well all across the state, including rural areas where Democrats have traditionally struggled.”

Vote of Women Propels Clinton in Nevada Caucus
By JEFF ZELENY and JENNIFER STEINHAUER

LAS VEGAS — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won the vote in the Nevada Democratic caucuses on Saturday, giving her a second consecutive victory in what is shaping up as a protracted battle with Senator Barack Obama.

Mrs. Clinton scored a clear victory measured in the number of people attending the caucuses on her behalf. But Mr. Obama’s campaign was successful by another measure — in the allocation of delegates to the national nominating convention, a result of a complex formula that gave more weight to votes in some parts of the state.

Another Democratic candidate, John Edwards, placed a distant third in Nevada, a state that he once viewed as crucial to his prospects. Mr. Edwards has a chance to rebound next Saturday in the primary election in South Carolina, where he was born. But the Democratic contest already appears to be turning into a long-term fight for delegates between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama.

The results in Nevada had encouraging signs for Mrs. Clinton. She did well among women and Hispanics, two constituencies she is counting on as the campaign heads toward a coast-to-coast showdown in 22 states on Feb. 5.

The battle was most fiercely fought in Las Vegas, particularly at the casinos that hosted some of the caucuses. This provided an odd tableau for a nominating contest: women in black-sequined cocktail dresses and neatly pressed maid uniforms, and men coming off their shifts in the bar and wearing sunglasses indoors as they voted.

The contest in Nevada drew record turnout among Democratic caucusgoers, a reflection of the intensity of the race. In hundreds of precinct caucuses, including nine casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, about 116,000 voters took part in the first Western contest in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, 10 times the amount in the 2004 caucuses here.With 98 percent of the precincts reporting on Saturday night, Mrs. Clinton, of New York, had 51 percent of the vote and Mr. Obama, of Illinois, had 45 percent. Mr. Edwards, of North Carolina, came in with 4 percent, a surprisingly poor showing given the attention he had devoted to Nevada.

But the delegate count under the intricate rules of the caucuses appeared to favor Mr. Obama because of his support from a wide swath of the state, giving him 13 delegates compared with 12 for Mrs. Clinton.

In a statement, Mr. Obama noted that he had received one more delegate in Nevada than Mrs. Clinton because of a strong performance in precincts outside Las Vegas.

“We came from over 25 points behind to win more national convention delegates than Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Obama said, “because we performed well all across the state, including rural areas where Democrats have traditionally struggled.”