And He's Off: Romney in Florida

Romney's third victory of the Republican presidential race, following the Michigan primary on Tuesday and Wyoming caucuses on Jan. 5, more firmly established him as a top contender.

Mitt Romney notched an easy win yesterday in the lightly contested Nevada caucuses, but finished fourth in the fiercely fought South Carolina primary, a mixed result that sets him up for a major battle in Florida.

Even as he celebrated his win, Romney set his sights on the Jan. 29 Florida primary, the next big prize and the gateway to Super Tuesday on Feb. 5. He drew 600 supporters to a rally at the University of North Florida last night and plans to embark on a bus tour across the state tomorrow. He said he may not campaign outside Florida until after the vote.

"Well, I'd love to win Florida, of course," Romney said at a Jacksonville airport, immediately after landing on a chartered flight from Las Vegas. "It's a very big state with a lot of delegates, and I care very much about Florida."

Romney won the support of 51 percent of Nevada caucus-goers, but only 15 percent of South Carolina voters. With the addition of 17 of Nevada's 31 delegates to his tally, Romney extended his lead in the overall race for delegates. Florida - where recent polls suggest a tight four-way race among Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, and John McCain - will award 57 more.

His rivals will need to raise millions of dollars to compete through Feb. 5, but Romney has the advantage of being able to dip again into his personal fortune.

Romney focused on winning Nevada because it was friendlier territory and had more delegates than South Carolina, which awards 24. The race is so wide open that Romney's aides believe that the Republican National Convention in September might be brokered, if no candidate has the nomination locked up.

In South Carolina, Romney finished behind McCain, Huckabee, and Fred Thompson, who had been warring there for weeks. Romney campaigned less aggressively in the state, gambling that a clear win in Nevada would be more important for him than bragging rights from the first Southern primary, which every GOP nominee has won since 1980.

Besides Romney, only Ron Paul, who finished a distant second, made a serious effort in Nevada's GOP caucuses, but Romney insisted the absence of major rivals did not make his victory any less meaningful.

"From my standpoint, that was good news, not bad news," he said. "I'm pleased that I was able to win in this state, get good support here, and underscore the fact that I'm competing in all the states."

Romney built his win in the Silver State with support from across demographic groups. But fellow Mormons played a particularly significant role. About 25 percent of those attending the caucuses were Mormon, and more than nine in 10 voted for Romney, according to the preliminary results of an entrance poll conducted for the Associated Press and the television networks. About half of Romney's support came from Mormons, the survey suggested.

Romney downplayed those figures, saying he believes voters choose candidates based on their qualifications, not their religion. Still, his win underscored yet again the striking role of religion in the Republican race.

Nevada has the fourth-highest concentration of Mormons of any state, about 9 percent of its population. Romney made it a priority, particularly after South Carolina's large population of evangelicals flocked to Huckabee, a former Baptist minister. Evangelical voters also helped power Huckabee to a win over Romney in Iowa.

"There will always be some people whose vote will be shaped by the faith of the candidate," Romney said. "I don't think that's the majority of the country."

In Nevada, Romney also had a slight lead among non-Mormons and ran even with Huckabee among evangelicals, according to the entrance poll.

Romney received word of his win a bit awkwardly while he was flying from Las Vegas to Florida. At the time, he was sitting on an armrest in the rear of the plane, briefing reporters on a $233 billion economic stimulus plan he released yesterday. His wife, Ann, got on the public address system and said she had announcement to make. Looking somewhat annoyed, Romney raised his hand and told her not to interrupt. But she went ahead and said Fox News had just declared him the winner in Nevada. Air traffic controllers had radioed the news to the flight crew.

"That is a good announcement. Got any more good ones? Keep them coming," Romney said with a muted enthusiasm that reflected what was essentially a foregone conclusion.

The economic stimulus package buttresses Romney's chief message since his Michigan victory: that his business experience makes him the best candidate to create jobs and strengthen the ailing economy.

The package would cut the lowest individual income tax rate from 10 percent to 7.5 percent, eliminate payroll taxes on employees over age 65, and reduce the top corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent over two years. Romney said his plan would give corporations more incentives to hire workers than the $145 billion plan President Bush proposed .

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.