On May 5, 9:41=A0am, California Poppy <GoldenStatePo...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> California Democrats crow over voter roll uptick
> By Dan Walters - dwalt...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Published 12:00 am PDT Monday, May 5, 2008
>
> California's Democratic leaders, who have seen their share of the
> electorate decline by about 15 percentage points over the last three
> decades, are crowing about an uptick in registration.
>
> Secretary of State Debra Bowen re****ted that Democratic registration
> jumped from 42.7 percent in December to 43.5 percent last month, while
> Republican registration declined by virtually the same amount.
>
> "The Democratic voter registration train in California continues to
> accelerate while the Republican train has jumped off the tracks,"
> state Democratic Chairman Art Torres proclaimed, citing a 469,700-
> voter gain from 2004 and a 109,870-voter loss by Republicans.
>
> Torres and other Democratic leaders are also elated that two counties
> that had acquired Republican pluralities during the decades of
> Democratic decline, Ventura and Stanislaus, now have moved back into
> the Democratic column by narrow margins.
>
> What neither they nor anyone else knows, however, is whether it's a
> permanent trend or merely a tem****ary lull in the long-term erosion of
> Democratic Party strength, which has been much more dramatic than the
> losses suffered by Republicans. Both parties have been losing ground
> to the rising ranks of independents aligned with no party, who now
> constitute just under 20 percent of voters.
>
> President Bush's very low popularity in the state has contributed to
> the Democratic gains, no doubt, along with the intense voter interest
> generated by the duel between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack
> Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination and what Torres
> describes as an effective party registration drive.
>
> Republican registration efforts, meanwhile, have been hindered by the
> state party's precarious finances, as well as Bush's unpopularity. But
> a few days after the registration re****t was released, Insurance
> Commissioner Steve Poizner =96 a likely GOP candidate for governor in
> 2010 =96 announced that he was contributing from his vast personal
> fortune to a new voter registration drive.
>
> The positive Democratic registration news has ramifications for this
> year's elections and, were it to continue, could impact the campaigns
> for governor, U.S. senator and other statewide offices two years
> hence.
>
> ****tions of newly Democratic Stanislaus County, for instance, are in
> the 12th Senate District, where Republican in***bent Jeff Denham faces
> a Democratic-sponsored recall election on June 3. And Republican
> registration has slipped by three percentage points, down to under 35
> percent, since Denham won re-election in 2006.
>
> Ventura County's new Democratic plurality, to cite another example,
> typifies the party's gains in the 19th Senate District, which is
> likely to be the state's most heavily contested legislative
> battleground in November. The district, centered in Ventura but
> including ****tions of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties, was
> designated as a Republican bastion in the bipartisan gerrymander of
> legislative seats seven years ago, but its once-large GOP voter margin
> has been shrinking.
>
> Four years ago, as Republican Sen. Tom McClintock was seeking re-
> election in the 19th District, he had a seven-percentage-point GOP
> margin. Today it's down to scarcely two points as McClintock is forced
> out of the Legislature by term limits and seeks a congressional seat
> 400 miles to the north in the Sacramento suburbs. Two former Assembly
> members, Republican Tony Strickland and Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson,
> are preparing to duel in the 19th District, and the outcome could
> change the balance of power in the Senate, especially if the Denham
> recall succeeds.
>
> Finally, whatever hopes Republican Sen. John McCain may harbor for
> winning California's presidential electoral votes will be dimmed if
> the gap between Republicans and Democrats continues to widen.
>
>
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-=AD-----
Understand that many re-registered to vote for Obama which explained
that Obama closed the gap from 20% to about 10% in the primary. If the
demo infighting continues bitterly for much longer, don't count on
those "new" democrats to return in Nov.
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