WASHINGTON - Republican Mitt Romney won Nevada's caucuses Saturday while John McCain and Mike Huckabee dueled in the South Carolina primary, a campaign doubleheader likely to winnow the crowded field of presidential rivals. Democrats shared the stage in Nevada, where Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama vied for a caucus victory and the campaign momentum that goes with it.
Romney's western victory marked two straight successes, coming after a win in the Michigan primary earlier in the week that revived his campaign.
Alone among the Republican contenders, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas aired television ads in Nevada, and the libertarian-leaning Texan looked for his best showing of the campaign season.
Nevada offered more delegates but far less appeal to the Republican candidates than South Carolina, a primary that has gone to the party's eventual nominee every four years since 1980.
That made it a magnet for former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who staked his candidacy on a strong showing, as well as for Romney, McCain, the Arizona senator; and Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas.
Weather troubles and the polls Polls in South Carolina opened Saturday at 7 a.m. with many areas seeing rain coming down. A poll manager in Mount Pleasant said it would be difficult to predict what the inclement weather would do to voter turnout. In the northern reaches of the state up to three inches of snow was forecast, which threatened to slow the region to a crawl.
"My friends, these are challenging times," John McCain told supporters Friday while aboard a World War II aircraft carrier in Charleston's harbor. He was referring to the slumping economy, but he could have been talking about the intensity and the expense of the neck-and-neck fight for the GOP nomination.
To the East, Republicans battled for delegates in South Carolina, home of 6.6 percent unemployment in December after the largest one-month increase in nearly 20 years. Political viability was at stake for McCain, Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson; Mitt Romney, meanwhile, lowered expectations for his prospects in the Palmetto State by moving on to Nevada.
To the West, candidates of both parties braced for caucuses in Nevada that for Democrats have been mired in legal disputes and exchanges about race. The uncertainty stemmed in large part from earlier-than-usual voting in the nation's fastest-growing state.
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