Nevada poll tilts toward Clinton, Romney

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney led their respective parties heading into Saturday's presidential caucuses in Nevada, a poll said Friday.

In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, the U.S. senator from New York held a 41 percent-to-32 percent lead over Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the Las Vegas Review-Journal poll indicated. The newspaper's poll reported former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina was third with 14 percent.

On the Republican side, Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, led Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., by 15 points, 34 percent to 19 percent. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who topped the December Review-Journal poll, was in sixth place.

University of Nevada-Reno political scientist Eric Herzik warned against anointing a winner in a caucus state.

"It's hard enough to get a reliable poll in such a fluid situation and it's even harder when you're trying to discern caucus-goers," Herzik told the newspaper. "Buyer beware."

The poll of 500 likely caucus-goers for each party was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. from Monday through Wednesday. It has a margin of error 4.5 percentage points.