Poll: Nevada all tied up

The race between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney remains tight in the battleground of Nevada, a poll released Thursday shows.

Obama has a two-point advantage over Romney, 47% to 45%, in the Suffolk University/KSNV poll. The difference is within the poll's sampling error of plus or minus 4.4 points.

Obama's advantage is eight points, 50% to 42% in the state's most populous county, Clark County, and four points (47%-43%) in the second most populous county, Washoe County. Romney, however, leads in the other 15 counties 63% to 30%, according to the survey.

The Nevada race for a U.S. Senate seat is also close: Sen. Dean Heller, the Republican, stands at 40% with Rep. Shelley Berkley, a Democrat, at 37%. The race has attracted over $13 million in spending by outside groups, according to FEC records. The conservative group Crossroads has aired a series of television ads sharply critical of Berkley.

Independent candidate David Lory VanderBeek stands at 7% in the Senate poll.

Two September, pre-debate polls of the battleground state found the presidential race there was similarly close. The CNN/ORC International survey released September 20 found the candidates three points apart, while the NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist Poll released September 28 found a two point margin.

Nevada has six electoral votes and went to Obama in 2008 and President George W. Bush in 2004.

Romney won the state's February caucuses with 50% of the vote.

The Suffolk University/KSNV poll included 500 registered voters and 452 likely voters reached by phone.