Romney looks to boost front-runner status in Nevada

With a huge lead in polls, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney appeared poised for an easy win in Nevada on Saturday that would put him in firm command of the party's see-sawing presidential nominating race.

A Nevada victory would be Romney's second win in a row and his third in the first five contests in the state-by-state battle to find a Republican challenger to President Barack Obama in November's general election

A new Public Policy Polling survey showed Romney picking up support from 50 percent of likely voters in Nevada's caucuses. Gingrich was at 25 percent, US Representative Ron Paul at 15 percent and former Senator Rick Santorum at 8 percent.

The poll surveyed 937 likely Republican caucus voters on Wednesday and Thursday. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. Its results were similar to a Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper poll on Thursday that gave the former Massachusetts governor a 20-point lead in Nevada.

"Mitt Romney is headed for a big win in Nevada on Saturday," said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling. "He's winning with virtually every demographic group we track."

Romney, in economically hard-hit Nevada for three campaign events on Friday, welcomed the latest jobs report showing US unemployment dipping to 8.3 percent, but said President Barack Obama's policies had prevented a broader recovery.

"We can do better," said Romney, who has touted his business experience as head of a private equity group as a cure for the ailing economy. "Nearly 24 million Americans remain unemployed, underemployed, or have just stopped looking for work."

Nevada has the highest state unemployment rate, 12.6 percent in December, and the highest foreclosure rate, putting the economy in the spotlight before Saturday's contest as it will be in the November general election.

Gingrich again criticized Romney for his comment earlier this week that he did not care about the poor because they had a social safety net.