California Republican ranks shrinking
San Francisco Chronicle / 11-2-12
The decline of the California Republican Party took a symbolic step Friday, with the secretary of state's office announcing that registered Republicans account for less than 30 percent of the state's electorate ahead of Tuesday's election.
The party's share of registered voters fell from 31.37 percent in October 2008 to 29.36 percent for this election. Despite an overall increase of more than 940,000 voters in the state in the past four years, the number of registered Republicans fell from 5.43 million to 5.36 million.
"The problem that we're facing isn't that Republicans are switching to Democrats," said state GOP Chairman Tom Del Beccaro, who recently said he would not seek another term. "It's that we're facing a significant number of our voters leaving the state, which makes it difficult for us just to keep pace."
But political analysts said the larger trend is an increase of young voters, many of whom are turned off by the Republican Party and tend to be more liberal. They also point to the fact that California voters could register online for the first time starting in September, which attracted thousands of young voters.
MORE: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/California-Republican-ranks-shrinking-4005002.php
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I could not be happier. Now if we can get Issa out of here I'll be even happier
