Mitt Romney's Welcome Back to Southern Nevada

As we had discussed earlier, Mitt Romney is here.





And just before he arrived, there were some special people ready to greet him.







For the most part, things remained calm at Henderson Pavilion. The only major moment of contention happened when the Univision camera crew came over to film the ProgressNow Nevada protesters and a few Romney supporters were hurling insults at the protesters... And at the Univision camera crew. Other than that, there wasn't really confrontation this morning.

The other big takeaway from this morning was in contrasting what happened on the two sides. Honestly, the line for Mitt Romney looked like a long string of white. There was little diversity in the crowd. And the crowd mostly looked angry.

Meanwhile, the protesters were frustrated over Romney's anti-immigrant stance and refusal to acknowledge the severity of the foreclosure crisis. Yet even there, the group of protesters didn't look as visibly angry as the Romney supporters waiting in line. I just couldn't miss that interesting facet.

At the very least, the nearby early voting site at the Paseo Verde Library should see some action today. We'll have to see how much of a dent it really makes in Nevada Democrats' early vote lead.

Democrats Top 7% Voter Registration Advantage Statewide

Ralston broke the news just moments ago. Nevada Democrats almost hit the magic 90,000 mark in raw vote lead today... And the count is not over quite yet!

Here's where we stand now:

- Statewide, the exact Democratic registration lead is 89,605, or 7.15%. In last Friday's statewide report, it stood at 6.93%.

- In Washoe County (Reno-Sparks Metro), Republicans have gone from a 0.68% (or 1,620 raw vote) edge to a mere 0.005% barely there edge (!!!), or 1,172 raw votes.

- And as noted yesterday, Democrats are nearing a very healthy 15% registration advantage in Clark County (Metro Las Vegas).

So it's virtually guaranteed that Nevada Democrats will finish with a voter registration advantage of over 7% and 90,000 raw votes. To further put things into perspective, Nevada Democrats had about 100,000 more voters than Republicans at the end of registration in 2008, and about 60,000 more voters at the end of registration in 2010. Now, it's all about the ground game.

Oh, and by the way, here's what Ralston had to say about that.

MarkHalperin

@RalstonReports on MSNBC: comparing D and R ground game in NV is like comparing "a Ferrari to a Matchbox car." yourmetaphorsmatter

Retweeted by Jon Ralston 8:41am - 15 Oct 12

Need I say more?