Good Front Page Press for Bernie from Portland Oregon! [View all]

Closed primaries, provocative candidates spur flurry of party changes

Oregon’s closed primary elections and a pair of provocative presidential candidates have fueled a striking uptick in political party changes, mostly among nonaffiliated voters.

Joining or switching affiliation is common before an open presidential election, but the number of changes so far this year is more than double what it was during the same period in 2008 — the last time voters got to choose a nominee from the main two parties.

The majority of voters — about 65 percent — are switching to the Democratic Party, a trend that suggests momentum in the state for social Democrat Bernie Sanders, according to some political analysts.

And think they're going to stay loyal if it doesn't go their way? Read the whole article to find out, but here is one person's position (pay attention trad. marketeers!)

“One of the reasons I changed to unaffiliated in the first place is I wasn’t interested in being contacted about everything the Democratic Party was contacting me about,” Lippoff said. “It’s nice not getting junk mail and phone calls. In all likelihood, I will go back to what I was after the election.”

“It’s pretty clear voters are switching to Democrat, and I would guess it’s because they’re excited about Bernie Sanders,” said Jim Moore, a political science professor and director of the Tom McCall Center for Policy Innovation at Pacific University. “The evidence for that is 2008 when 150,000 new voters were registered for that primary. Most were Democrats. The vast majority was for Barack Obama.”