nevada... it's the republicans' turn to make their pick for president: (( caucus nats )) ((dave courvoisier)) 8 news

>> eight news now is live across the valley with what we're seeing on the front lines. >> we're checking in with multiple multiple campaign sites and our special coverage gips now. >> this is "politics now." >> and mia. thanks for joining us us. >> i'm dave. >> i'm paula francis. we're waiting for the first results which we're expecting sometime after 9:00 tonight. long lines gave way to big

>> vanessa, what do you see? >> reporter: we're hearing two stories about this location. our producer confirming there were several problems including long lines. when i talked to several people, they said for the most part, thing have been running smoothly. we caught donald trump as he was leaving here. i asked him several questions. here's what he had to say. >> mr. trump, what can you say to nevada voters? >> i love nevada. you know that. i lot of voters here. it's a great place. >> what have you noticed? >> tremendous energy. you see it yourself. this is really great energy. >> reporter: last night you had a couple of protestors escorted out. you mentioned punching one in the face. is that the right one to say? >> he was punching everybody. it's very sad. we don't want that to

would like to punch him in the face. >> is that presidential? >> reporter: donald trump is expected to be the frontrunner. people in line told me they were waiting quite a while and they got a late start. 20 to 30 minutes is when they let people in to start doing their thing. >> if caucusing go according to plan, it should be done by 8:30. one of the largest caucusing sites is at durango high school. >> is it going smoothly there so far? >> a lot of people are still trying to figure out who you they're going to vote for. this is a scene we've seen all evening long, people talking and caucusing and who they want to pick on the republican side. there's a large turnout at this location. some problems we've been

caucus sites here at durango high school, they haven't run out of ballots. we're told more are being delivered just in case. the line has wrapped around just dying down. still a steady flow of people comih line to get their precinct-specific ballots. a lot of people spent sometime caucusing trying to sway voters to their candidate of choice. it's about donald trump, marco rubio and ted cruz. one person we talked to caucusing for the first time says she wasn't sure what to expect. >> i've never experienced anything like this. i was at a rally last night at the south point for donald trump, and it was amazing to see all the people just so electrified. and so i am here for the first time i've ever done. this i'm here to cast my vote. >> reporter: as folks

caucus and drop off ballots, some voters tell me things could have been more organized than to stand in multiple lines. as far as the ballots, they'll each be hand counted. for voters who haven't made it out, you have until 8:30 to make it to the site. you have to have registered as a republican voter at least 10 days ago. we'll bring you the latest. reporting live, 8 news now. >> it looks pretty busy behind you. have you seen any spirited conversations where people are trying to convince one to vote for the other? >> reporter: i had a chance to sit at one of the tables and they're talking about a whole lot of issues there. they're talking about immigration. they're talking about jobs and the economy. not everyone is really agreeing with each other at times, but they are respecting each other as they try to sway each other to the candidate of their choice. back to you. >> thanks, mauricio. >> let's toss it over to our panel to see what they're think being some of these

we're all on edge to see if 'll hold on to our first in the west caucus. steve is with the panel. >> reporter: absolutely. well, we've seen some problems. there's been long lines. there's been running out of ballots. we're here with fernando romero, the president of hispanics in politics, alan stock, the king of talk radio and of course republican spinmeister extraordinaire. spin feister general stig rogan. we can talk about some of the problems here. do you think first of all -- is this going to affect whether or not we get to keep the caucus here? >> i think it will. there's been too many problems. i went to del sol high school. there was one person manning four tables. anybody who might have want to do something wrong could have done it very easily and very freely. >> how many times did you vote?

[laughter] >> alan, what -- you did not -- you chose not to partake of the caucus this year. >> first of all, i came over here from my show. the other thing is i think -- >> that's a good choice anyway. >> i think caucus is an absolute waste absolutely. i talked to a friend of mine on saturday after the end of the republican caucus, the democratic caucus. he said it took up to an hour and a half for people to vote. they were also voting about whether or not they wanted to continue a caucus or go a primary and he said everyone wanted to go to a primary. tonight an hour and a half cases. not all but some. put it back to a primary like it was before 2008 and let everyone vote from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and the turnout will be a lot hassles. we almost had fights at one of the places tonight.

national politics, if we went to a primary, we could lose our early state status. >> we could. >> would it be woring it to do that? >> i kind of really weigh in on the same side as my friends here. i think the caucus system is really a bad system. it's not only bad here. it's bad in iowa and other places here. but i'd like to see us go to a primary system. the governor pushed for it. we couldn't make that happen, the legislative body. i think as time goes on, i think maybe being the first in the west stays with us. and i think there's a good potential we could maintain that and go to a primary system. >> that is an interesting prospect. how would that happen given that the reason we gave up the primaries that were exactly as alan described run by the people who run all of our elections very efficiently and smoothly. we had to give that up in order to go to the party system to get that early space on the calendar. >> you can go to war with it

a state in many ways. they threatened to take away delegates and conventions. they did that to florida. that didn't mean anything to them really. >> nothing in there. >> i think it's a work in progress. i think as time goes on, i'd like to see us go to a primary system. ting makes better sense for us. >> you could have an earlier presidential primary and a general primary in june, but it'll cost twice as much money. that's ridiculous. smartest idea is to prove a primary up early on first of march, end of february, and have all the primary candidates. the big argument against that is that means people have to make up their mind about running for judgeships and assembly and all that stuff back around august and september, and they'll have to campaign through christmas. boo-hoo. make up your mind. if you can't make up your mind by august, september, something like that, forget about it. do it two years hence.

up alan stock on his radio show and blame him. >> we are getting calls at christmastime. thing. >> we'll have more with our expert panel. right now, let's go back to dave and paul and see what they've got for us. >> thanks, steven. enjoying the conversation. straight ahead, we're checking with our reporters

>> stay there.> ((dave courvoisier)) > marco rubio held a rally early this morning at the silverton. >> welcome back to "politics now." marco rubio held rally at silverton resort before getting on a plane to the midwest. he talked to supporters on health care and student loan debt and calling out the president for closing guantanamo bay expected the most attention. >> donald trump is expecting a major win.

party on the t.i. on the strip. patrick walk cere there now. patrick. > reporter: that's what the campaign is expecting tonight. they're expecting to hold some sort of a campaign rally and speech. we'll talk more about the room setup here in a few minutes. of course anything you can happen and donald trump all day and even in his visit last night has been imploring folks to get out to the caucuses and vote. mexico, isis and his rival ted cruz. he's also brought up twice guantanamo bay. last night at south point, he reaffirmed his support for waterboarding as an interrogation technique and trump vowed to keep gitmo open. >> this morning i watched president obama talking about gitmo which by the way we are keeping open. which we are keeping open. and we're going to load it up with some bad dudes. believe me, we're going to load it up. >> reporter: trump visits

time no different. culinary members protested as workers try to unionized and last night trump had three demonstrators removed at different times from the arena during his rally. doors here are opening in about a minute or 30 minutes rather. we're outside because secret service is inside doing a sweep. we know that donald trump is out and about visiting caucus sites and has done at least one national interview. we expect him here closer to the 11:00-hour. dave and paula. >> thanks, patrick. we'll check in with election headquarters where ballots

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the new additions to make sure every seat in the house has a great view. >> chilly temps return. when will it warm up again?> ((dave courvoisier)) > and ted cruz is in a battle with marco rubio.. for second place. ((paula francis)) >> ted cruz generally considered to be in a battle with marco rubio for second place. >> he's holding a campaign party tonight at the ymca across the street from the meadows mall.

what is the reaction? >> reporter: the watch party starting about 8:00 tonight. the gates slowly starting to trickle in some really early arrival arrivals. they're cranking the country music who will not be leaving sparks until 7:30. we can tell you what the senator was doing later today spending most of that in northern nevada with conservative talk show host glenn beck. they were visiting places like fernly and mix of sun and clouden and carson city. just a little while ago on social media, they talked about greeting a large caucus group at a high school in sparks. meantime, as trump continues to throw insults at cruz, calling him a liar, calling him a baby, soft and weak, cruz released this spot on twitter accusing trump of big governments, promising to return lands back to nevada. as we all know, that's a hot-button are issue here in the silver state.

trump is favored to win. cruz reminding republicans that so far he's been the only one to beat trump which he did in iowa. his closest rival hasn't won anything. he's hoping he has a strong second place finish. he has the campaign moan. recent finance reports show he has more than a million dollars to spend. that is going to be certainly a big telltale sign for him tonight. denise valdez, 8 news now. >> thanks, denise. we'll hear with our panel of

when we come back.> ((dave courvoisier)) > votes are frantically being counted at the r-n-c's election headquarters at the south point hotel- >> votes are being counted at the r.n.c.'s headquarters at the casino. >> paul is there eagerly awaiting the first results. any hangups you've seen so far. >> reporter: we expect the first results to come in just after 9:00 tonight. we're at the south point casino, a large room, a the love space for people waiting to hear the results coming in. this year they'll do it a little different. in 2012, there was some confusion and took days to finish counting. tonight they'll call the results in and take pictures of the numbers written on the envelopes and text those pictures to the republican party chairman for clark county. i talked to sarah sendic and she explained about what's

>> tonight after every precinct counts their ballot, they turn them into the site manager. site manager of tally those up who will e-mail them over and them report them out through the associated press. >> reporter: and we are here along with the associated press. take a look over their shoulder as the votes are tallied and broadcast out. we'll be among the first to have those numbers for you for the caucuses around nevada. >> again, first results expected to come in via telephone and then put out to you, our viewers shortly after 9:00. paul johnson, 8 news now. >> what kind of impact did first timers have today? >> let's talk about that. the enthusiasm seems to be off the charts. i've been told by at least one republican official this could be a record turnout for nevada. we're talking during the break about how there's

states as well. republicans are really enthusiastic. >> i was surprised to see dell sol with as many people as was there. >> i wonder around 6:00. it was 6:00 straightup. i would say at least 700 people. at 6:00. and a lot of people had already left. i talk on our r. a volunteer who said that it was a quarter to 4:00, and there was already a line out to the street. >> what was the mood like? it was very energized? >> it was energized. it wasn't balloons and confetti. it was nice. it wasn't solemn. it was nice. no campaigning though. i don't know. >> interesting. interesting. >> if that enthusiasm gap continues, the democrats really have to worry, right? it looks like hillary clinton is on her way to becoming the nominee. if people are more excited

especially if it's donald trump, that's got to be some -- democrats have to worry about it? >> trump has definitely energized people. i'm talking about people in general. look at last night the south point, 10,000 to 12,000 people showing the entire arena. on the other side, bernie has also, you know, fired up his base, fired up the left when it comes to democrats. listen. >> as much as trump do you think? >> no, not as much as trump. trump has the advantage of also being a media figure, you know; a tv personality. bernie doesn't have that. but listen, people are turning against the establishment this year, whether it's barack obama or the george w. bush. they're turning against the establishment and looking for something different. bernie is certainly something different and trump is different.

>> my friend jim denton told me and pointed out we have record numbers for iowa in the caucuses for new hampshire and south carolina and now nevada. i think democrats have to worry about the energy level being high with hillary. i don't know if you saw the gallop poll. 21% who answered said she was dishonest or deceitful. that's a remarkable number. i think that if that plays itself out and you have an energy with a drop off as 5%, that's significant across the country. i think that there's a lot of problems with a trump candidacy frankly. i still do, because i think at the end of the day, fernando will tell you -- and he knows better than anybody, you have to win about 35% of the hispanic vote in this nation in order

i think he has troubles there. but a lot of that goes by the wayside if the energy levels move to a degree that republican' vote disproportionate than what they do historically. they still have a chance to do that. these record turnout are indicative of that. >> what do you think? you have seen the rise of donald trump in your party. are you worried about that? >> i'm very concerned. in fact i keep posting on facebook. it's one of those things where it's a phenomena. i can tell you you don't have to be a mathematician. he can't get above a certain level. 37 is the most he's gotten. i think even marco rubio has been bringing it up, and that's why i say marco is trying to ask for polito john kasich to step aside, and john is not going to do it. but i think marco is on the

the thing is that for the republicans, it would be a bad thing with donald makes it. the latino community does make that major difference. i can assure you the latino community will not go -- >> trump was 24. people said he wasn't. they said he can't rise to 30. tonight it's going to be 39 or 40. pretty soon they'll say you can't get out of the 40s and then the firsts. this guy is on a roll. the big mo is with donald trump. >> you're questioning the aerobics class glass ceiling. we'll have more on our special praudbroadcast. >> thanks for watching "politics now." on 8 newsnow and politics now tonight at 11 with results from the caucus.////

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base command: tango, check on a camera outage along perimeter three.

copy that, command. tango out. so you gonna answer this question? only one food you get to live on for the rest of your life. easy. new england clam chowder. ew. really? you don't like chowder? i do, but come on-- every meal, every day? oh, the creamy kind... no way i'd get tired of it. you? pizza. oh, right. pizza. damn. is it too late to change my answer? you can change it 100 times, finny. no one's got a gun to your head. but i do have pizza in my head now, thank you very much. yum. what the hell? finn: hey, this doesn't look right. (siren whoops) finn: halt! hands where i can see them! whoa. look, it's all good. we're just fixing the fence. command said nothing about that. we got a call from your hq. looks like some joker with a wire cutter was trying to ruin your night. what's with the crates?