New-voter registrations in Sacramento region tilt toward Democrats

It certainly seems as you drive around town, that Sacramento is leaning toward a Democratic president.

From the SacBee.com

Democrats are outpacing Republicans in the drive to recruit new voters in the Sacramento region ahead of the November general election.

Amid the change, Placer County has fallen from its post as California’s chief Republican stronghold, a shift that may affect a closely watched congressional race.

Since the two parties largely settled on presidential nominees in April, voter rolls have increased by roughly 19,500 – or 2 percent – in Placer, El Dorado, Sacramento and Yolo counties, according to new figures from the California secretary of state’s office. Democrats accounted for 10,500 of those new voters. Just 2,400 were Republicans. Most of the others declined to state an allegiance.

The regional numbers mirror a statewide trend. California’s Democratic voter rolls have increased by 181,118 since April while the number of Republicans grew by 6,823. Republicans saw a net loss of registered voters in 25 counties, including a loss of more than 15,000 in conservative Orange County. Similar trends are playing out nationally, in several battleground states.

“We’ve had a little weariness with the current administration,” said Craig MacGlashan, chairman of the Sacramento County Republicans, explaining the apparent preference of the new voters. But he said the numbers don’t reflect a recent wave of enthusiasm for the presidential campaign of John McCain. “I’ve seen an uptick with interest since John McCain picked Sarah Palin” as his running mate.

That interest has not been enough to counter the shift in Placer County, which since 2002 had been the state’s Republican leader.

Modoc County, in California’s rural northeastern corner, is now statistically the state’s most Republican.

And no longer are most Placer County voters registered Republicans.

The party’s share dropped from 52.2 percent before the 2004 election to 49.7 percent today.

During the past four years, the Placer County Democratic Party has grown by roughly three registered voters for every two who have joined county Republicans, state figures show.

More recently, from April though August, Placer’s Democratic tally grew by 1,269 while Republican ranks increased by 585, state figures show. Since Labor Day, Republicans have narrowed that 684-voter gap to 424, Placer election officials say.

“I’ve got to attribute that to a strong Democratic effort to get new registrants – a stronger effort than Republicans,” said Gary Dietrich, a local political analyst and president of Citizen Voice, a nonpartisan voter-awareness group.

That drive could play a role in the contest between Democrat Charlie Brown and Republican Tom McClintock to fill the seat John Doolittle now holds in the 4th Congressional District, Dietrich said.

The district, which covers Placer County and much of rural northeastern California – including Modoc County – is rated a “Race to Watch” by Congressional Quarterly.

The district still is solidly Republican, but from April to early September, Democrats added 2,649 voters in the 4th District, compared to 1,582 more Republicans.

Bill George, Placer County Republican Party communications director, dismissed the recent numbers as “statistically insignificant.”

“Those are very incremental types of moves and not indicative of any type of trend or change in the makeup of the county,” he said. “There’s no trend, no change that we see in the numbers that show that we’re becoming less of a Republican Party in this county.”

George added that the party has seen strong voter registration activity since the beginning of September – about 950 new voters registered as Republicans this month, compared to 700 Democrats.

There are, however, physical signs of change in Placer County: For the first time in roughly a decade, it has a Democratic Party headquarters. Located in Auburn, the office is paid for by the Placer County Democratic Central Committee and serves as headquarters for the Barack Obama and Charlie Brown campaigns. It’s staffed full time by volunteers, said Newcastle resident Arry Murphey-Frank, the Democrats’ district manager.

What does this say for our city…