peter hamby, we'll check back with you throughout the afternoon. join us every sunday afternoon at 4:00 eastern time when we dedicate an entire hour to the presidential contenders in this 2012 election. of course you want to stick with us throughout the day for continued updates on what's taking place with the caucusing in nevada. tonight our expanded coverage starts at 6:00 p.m. with a special edition of "the situation room." you'll want to join wolf blitzer and the rest of the cnn political team on television for live coverage of all of the results. >>> up next, an arizona judge rules one woman's spanish accent is too heavy to hold city council office. now she's fighting to get her name on the ballot. our legal guys will be weighing in. termisee it through. here's an update on the progress. we're paying for all spill related clean-up costs. bp findings supports independent scientists studying the gulf's environment. thousands of environmental samples have been tested and all beaches and waters are open. and the tourists are back. i was born here,

. >> i'm peter hamby here in henderson, nevada. i want to give you a look at the scale.ncts. at this one, there's 378 registered republicans but only 35, 40 people are showing up today. remember, there's not the political culture surrounding the caucuses in nevada as there is in iowa. this is only the second caucus that republicans have held here. the first one was in 2008. we're seeing a little bit of logistical confusion as people figure out the ballots and that sort of thing in hen der ton. >> reporter: i'm paul here in carson city. now, this area, 11,000 republicans, 10,000 democrats. they are dropping their votes off over here in the precinct offices. there are 24 of them. carson city went for john mccain in 2008 in a totally unscientific poll, talking to people around here, mitt romney is doing well. he's covered a lot of northwest nevada. i'm paul in carson city. >> we're going to go to carson city live as soon as they start counting the votes. more numbers are coming in right now. we're going to update you in a moment. let me go over to soledad once again. she ha

joining us with insight is political reporter peter hamby. let's start with this endorsement from jan brewer. there's not really a consensus on what endorsements really mean anymore but can you put this in context for us? >> you're right. endorsements tend to be a little overblown. this is a good pick-up for mitt romney. there are conservatives as we know in this country who are skeptical of mitt romney. jan brewer as you said is a very conservative governor who's put immigration at the top of her agenda. as you know she signed the tough immigration crackdown bill last year. this gives conservatives who might be skeptical of mitt romney a little bit of a comfort zone, a little bit of a blessing to go to the polls and vote for him, but also, you know, no politician at this level makes an endorsement like this without some level of personal calculation. you have to think that jan brewer has seen some polling perhaps, knows mitt romney is probably a safe bet, a lot of political observers think it's trending in mitt romney after rick santorum had

in the meantime, i'd like to bring in our political reporter peter hamby standing by at the conservativehave to breakaway once the president starts speaking. but i hear is the republican presidential hopefuls will be making their pitches to the crowds there where you are. >> yeah, they'll be here tomorrow. the three front-runners at least, mitt romney, rick santorum and newt gingrich. this is a barometer of conservative sentiment. the real party activists will be here tomorrow. mitt romney is struggling to connect with these kind of voters. we're going to be watching him tomorrow to see the kind of reaction he gets. mitt romney has a smart professional team they'll won't let their man get booed here. he's got to the make his case. we'll be interested to see whether he attacks his rivals or keep the focus on barack obama. we're also going to be looking to see how santorum and gingrich do. those are both obviously the two candidates vying to be the, quote unquote, conservative alternative to mitt romney. >> peter, we're going to have to -- >> i'm sorry is, we have to stop you there. we wan

. >> peter hamby, keep your eye on that. that it for me.friday. have a great weekend. "cnn news room" continues. [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your stuffy nose. [ deep breath ] thank you! that's the cold truth! until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ that right now, you want to know where you are, and where you'd like to be. we know you'd like to see the same information your advisor does so you can get a deeper understanding of what's going on with your portfolio. we know all this because we asked you, and what we heard helped us create pnc wealth insight, a smarter way to work with your pnc advisor, so you can make better decisions and live achievement. >>> hello, i'm in for brooke baldwin this friday. let's take you straight before we get to the rest of the program to washington, d.c. brian todd is on the phone. i understand, brian, that a man has been arrested in washington on his way to the u.s. capitol with plans to attack it. can you give us more