Mitt Romney gets backing from state lawmakers

By Karoun Demirjian

Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011 | 9:59 a.m.

The GOP presidential field’s focus has been almost exclusively on Iowa and New Hampshire, but Mitt Romney’s campaign gave a nod to Nevada this morning as he announced a roster of state legislators who are throwing their weight behind him.

It’s a lengthy roster, but noticeably devoid of heavyweights.

The list is made up of nine of the 15 Republicans in the state Assembly, but doesn’t include Republican leader Pete Goicoechea. It includes none of the 10 Republicans in the state Senate.

If you go higher up than that, his support is even thinner: of Nevada’s Republicans in statewide or federal elected office, only Rep. Joe Heck and Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki have endorsed Romney.

Of course, that still puts Romney up, 10-to-zero. No one in similar public offices or the Legislature has endorsed the other presumed Silver State frontrunners: Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Ron Paul.

But Romney’s a known entity in Nevada, and while it’s still early, the sound of crickets coming from so many offices that supported him in the past may be a sign that in 2012 people will be taking Romney’s challengers seriously, despite how roundly he trounced the competition in the caucuses four years ago.

Romney’s list of new supporters are:

· Assemblyman Ed Goedhart (District 36)

· Assemblyman Scott Hammond (District 13)

· Assemblyman Cresent Hardy (District 20)

· Assemblyman Pat Hickey (District 25)

· Assemblyman Kelly Kite (District 39)

· Assemblyman Pete Livermore (District 40)

· Assemblyman Mark Sherwood (District 21)

· Assemblyman Lynn Stewart (District 22)

· Assemblywoman Melissa Woodbury (District 23)