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Nevada Dems build on registration advantage |
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 By Joseph K. Cooper
LAS VEGAS-New voter registration numbers, released yesterday by the secretary of state's office, show that state Democrats have improved on the advantages they've gained in the last several months and are now in an even stronger position to pick up seats on the assembly, state senate and congressional levels.
Democrats, who had trailed Republicans in overall voter registration as
recently as March of 2007, now have 441,676 active registered voters in
Nevada as compared to 396,489 Republicans. Although both parties
picked up voters, the Democratic advantage has swelled to 45,187
registrations, up from slightly more than 40,000 just a month ago.
"This is just an incredible shift in voter registration," said Kirsten
Searer, deputy executive director of the Nevada Democratic Party,
today. "The interesting thing about this is, at this point this isn't
just caucus returns. For a long time, we were getting a boost because
county registrars were going through the voter registration forms from
the caucus. We're beyond that and we're still seeing a huge uptick in
voter registration."
Searer noted that although Democratic voter registration drives have
begun in targeted districts, most of the improvement has come from
voters registering on their own, without contact from the state or
county parties.
"And that is incredibly encouraging so early in the presidential
election," said Searer. "A year ago, no one would have believed it."
Democrats recorded gains in what are expected to be some of the
hottest-contested races in the upcoming election cycle, including
Republican Congressman Jon Porter's 3rd Congressional District, where
Democrats now outnumber Republicans by 21,430, up 1,318 from last
month, Republican state Sen. Bob Beers' 6th Senate District, where the
slim Democratic lead has swelled to 375 votes from 222 last month, and
Republican state Sen. Joe Heck's 5th Senate District, where the
Democratic advantage is now over 2,100 registrations, up 260 from last
month.
Around the state, Democrats added to their advantage or narrowed the
gap slightly in every senate district up for election this year, with
the exception of state Sen. Dean Rhoads' rural district, where
Republicans added just under 100 registrations.
"Obviously, it would be natural to be concerned about the numbers, but
at the same time we're going to be doing everything we possibly can to
cut into those," said Zach Moyle, executive director of the Nevada
Republican Party. "We absolutely feel that the way the numbers are
reflected today is not going to be what they are on Election Day."
"In addition to that, we feel very strong about our GOTV efforts, we
feel very good about the fact that John McCain will be a terrific
nominee and he also will play very well with third-party voters which
make up a significant number in the state."
Although Democrats have improved upon their statewide registration
outlook, they are still lagging behind the GOP in candidate
recruitment. Currently, there are declared Democratic challengers in
only two Republican-held and one open Democratic assembly seats.
Republicans, in contrast, have fielded candidates in five
Democratic-held seats and have candidates for two Republican-held open
seats plus one primary challenge. In the state senate, although Heck
is considered a top target, no Democrat has yet announced a challenge.
"It's too early to think that we need to have all these slots filled,"
said Searer. "Our leaders have identified several potential candidates
who would be excellent challengers and we feel very good about our
candidate recruitment process at this point."
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Representing the 11th Senatorial District in Clark County.
Attorney and running for re-election in Assembly District 34