Clinton holds narrow Nevada lead on Obama: poll

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton holds a narrow 5-point lead on rival Barack Obama in Nevada on the eve of the state's presidential nominating contest, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Friday.

Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, led Obama, an Illinois senator, by 42 percent to 37 percent in the rolling tracking poll. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was a distant third with 12 percent.

In South Carolina, where Republicans vote on Saturday, Arizona Sen. John McCain maintained a steady 7-point edge on former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 29 percent to 22 percent, although rival and Mitt Romney gained three points overnight to climb into third place at 15 percent.

Both polls had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

Nevada and South Carolina are the next battlegrounds in the race to choose candidates for November's election to succeed President George W. Bush, with the winners in each state hoping to pick up some momentum as the calendar accelerates to February 5 contests in 22 states.

So far, no candidate in either party has been able to build up any real steam in a chaotic race that has seen five winners in the first five major state contests.

Obama and Clinton split the first two Democratic battles and have been running close in polls in Nevada, where turnout is uncertain. Nevada's Democratic nominating contest in 2004 drew just 9,000 participants, and no one is sure how many will turn out this time.

"This is a very competitive race, but it will depend on organization," pollster John Zogby said. "This is a caucus without much history to go on, so we have to see who can do the best job of turning out their vote."