[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

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

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

The California Secretary of State issued an update of voter registration figures late yesterday that bode very well for Democratic gains in the November election and show the state is turning even more Democratic from the level of the State Assembly to the Presidential race. There’s an increase in the overall percentage of Californians registered to vote and the trend goes one way—blue.

In January, at the close of registration just before the February 5, 2008 Presidential Primary, California Democrats had a 10 point advantage over Republicans, 43% to 33%. This has now increased to a 10.7% margin as Democrats picked up their percentage of registrants and are now 43.5% compared with Republicans who dropped to 32.8%.

This shows that even after the Presidential Primary, which has seen tremendous enthusiasm and growth in the Democratic Party, not only here in California but across the nation, there is a clear trend favoring the Democrats. It isn’t just the presidential race that is driving these numbers.

But even more significantly, there are gains in key state legislative districts where past elections have been close.

by Kim Stevens [courtesy of Party Line]

by Mary Pallant for Congress [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Hello Calitics!  My name is David Atkins--though most of you probably know me better on the blogs as thereisnospoon.  I'm writing today on behalf of Mary Pallant, the candidate I believe is best-suited to take CA-24 by storm and turn this district a bright shade of Progressive blue!  I've had several meetings with Mary over the last few years, and she has impressed me greatly with her tough-mindedness, can-do spirit, strong knowledge of the issues, organizational prowess, and personal charisma and charm.  I believe in Mary and her ability to win this seat--and now that I live and work in Ventura County, I've signed on to be the Netroots Coordinator for her campaign.  From now until November, you'll see Mary and I posting under this account to give you updates on the progress of our campaign to get rid of Elton Gallegly, one of the worst rubber-stamp Republicans in the Congress.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

New poll also underscores the electoral reality in California

By Frank D. Russo

Intrigued by the idea of California Republicans meeting in San Francisco, a city with 10.47% Republican registration, I nosed around the Hyatt Regency Hotel where this gang of 700 was convening.

Much has been written about the problems that the state Republican Party has with massive debts, lack of fundraising, a drop in party registration, an ideology out of touch with California voters as evidenced in any one of a number of polls—recent and for years. For all the talk at the convention, I didn’t see anything to convince me that John McCain can win this state in November against the Democratic nominee. The picture above shows the relatively monolithic turnout for the McCain meeting—starkly different from the diversity you would see at a Democratic Party convention. The same for the platform committee meeting pictures below.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

The California Secretary of State has just issued the last report of voter registration figures before the 2008 Presidential Primary Election. They show that Democrats are 43% of registered voters in California, up from 42.6% just before the 2006 Gubernatorial primary and just below the 43.2% who were registered Democrats at the time of the last Presidential Primary in June of 2004. Republicans have dropped from 35.6% in 2004 to 34.4% in 2006 and are now down to 33.3% of all registrants. Democrats now have a 10 point edge over Republicans.

However, the biggest gain in the last four years has been in the Decline-to-state voters—those who are not affiliated with any party who rose in the last 4 years from 16.4% to 19.4% of all voters. These DTS voters have been on a steady increase since 1992 when they accounted for 9.7% of all registrants.

Other parties account for a combined 4.3% of registered voters, with the American Independent Party at 2.1%, the Green Party at .8%, Libertarians at .5% and Peace and Freedom voters at .4%.

Since the last Presidential Primary Report in 2004, the total number of registered voters in the state has increased from 15,091,160 to 15,712,753, but the percentage of these voters compared with those who are eligible has declined from 68.95% to 68.47%.