Statement from CDP Chairman Art Torres Announcing New Democratic Voter Registration Totals

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Senator Art Torres (Ret.), Chairman of the California Democratic Party, today issued the following statement:

"When the voter registration figures were last released in April, it looked like a promising trend. Now we know the trend is a real, sustaining Democratic wave. The Democratic Party is growing, the Republican Party is shrinking and a third county so far this year -- Del Norte -- has switched from 'red' to 'blue.'
 
According to the California Secretary of State’s latest report of registration, Democrats added 304,454 voters to the rolls, while the Republicans added only 14,969 voters between January 22, 2008 and May 19, 2008.
 
That means that twenty voters registered with the California Democratic Party for every single voter that registered with the California Republican Party.
 
Democrats accounted for 74.1% of all new registrations, while decline-to-state voters accounted for 20.8%. New Republican registrations comprised only 3.6% of the total.
 
Democratic registration increased from 43.2% to 43.8%, while Republican registration plummeted from 35.6% to 32.5%. That’s not exactly what the Republicans would call a John McCain bandwagon effect.
 
I once again credit our local Democratic organizations throughout California’s 58 counties for all their hard work in registering new Democrats. These numbers once again reinforce that the vast majority of Californians do not want a Bush third term with John McCain."