Voters in (California's Central) Valley fleeing the GOP

[Newsjock]

Source: Fresno Bee

The Republican Party, which overtook Valley Democrats in voter registration totals eight years ago, is losing ground for the first time in at least a decade.

After peaking just ahead of the 2004 presidential election, Republican registration numbers are down in Fresno, Tulare, Kings, Madera, Mariposa and Merced counties.

The GOP's decline is most obvious in Fresno County, where the losses have turned into an avalanche, even as the party gears up its efforts to keep the White House in GOP hands by electing Arizona Sen. John McCain as president.

... Bob Mulholland, campaign adviser to the California Democratic Party, points out that Democrats picked up almost 75% of the more than 411,000 new voter registrations statewide between voter-registration reports filed Jan. 22 and May 19.

During that same time, close to 21% of new registrations were decline-to-state. Republicans picked up just 3.6% of the new voters.

Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/786635.html

[fascisthunter]

1. Seriously: What have Republicans Done for the Common Man in the US?

I never understood how anyone who is not wealthy would want to vote for that party... they represent the wealthy, and use extremist wedge issues to pander to the religious right. But other than that, they have done nothing but harm the common man in this country.

[Trajan]

5. VERY true .... But there is something more ....

Something that breaks my own heart ...

Democrats have helped to create the policies: The tax cuts for the rich ... the reductions in college grants and other financial assistance for families ... the destruction of defined benefit pensions ... the changes in bankruptcy laws ..... etc etc .....

Democrats have helped to create the policies that have reduced the common man and have made life much more difficult for everyday Joes and Janes .... It is very difficult for poor and middle class families to send their children to college, which is the springboard for success .... And once they DO get their education: Where are they going to work ? ... What will they get paid ? .... what is their compensation ?

I am a Democrat because I believe in raising the lot of the common man through the institutions of liberal government .... Yet todays Democratic politicians have been either afraid to promote those liberal policies (which by the way were NOT 'failed', but were smashing successes), or are actually more conservative than is warranted for a voter like myself ....

Show me a REAL Democrat ..... There are few who have the courage to be a Democrat ....

[fascisthunter]

6. our party is poisoned by the wealthy class

corruption spans both parties, but as a whole, the Democratic Party is far better for the common man than the Republican Party.

[Trajan]

10. Oh .. I am going to stay a Democrat, as I have been all my life ...

But I am absolutely frustrated by those in the party who forget the history of working men and women since the age of industrialization. It has been a history of paltry wages, dangerous working conditions, pure exploitation: Labor laws were introduced because people had enough of that exploitation, and they battled in the streets and in congress to reverse those awful conditions .... and now the Democrats seem ready to hand over the fucking store AGAIN to their friends in the corporate world ....

Hey ... I do NOT begrudge human beings who amass 'wealth' through their own hard work and toil .... But the regulations that were instituted through the 20th century, both on labor AND the markets, were there for a reason .....

The problem is not wealth, but the suppression of the lower classes as to deny them a fair share for THEIR own hard work and toil' .... I deeply resent those Democrats like Biden and Liebermann who helped craft the Bankruptcy bill, and which denies to a great degree the 'fresh start' needed by families who hit the very straits we now see on the public square .... Democrats should be STRENGTHENING those safeguards ... not repealing them ....

The 'big boys' on Wall Street are infused with public cash when they hit dire straits, from the same lower and middle class citizens who pay taxes and are REFUSED that same help ....

Bear Stearns gets BILLIONS of tax dollars to shore up their shaky finances .. but Citizen Joe Stearns is turned away and told to pick himself up by nonexistent bootstraps ....

Yes .... I blame the Democrats for this debacle as well .... it will take GENERATIONS to repair the damage to Main Street USA ....

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

26. The only way to legally change the situation...

Is for the left side of the party to get and remain mobilized, advocate loudly and long time, work to have the financial resources to weild that 2x4 that gets the old mule's attention and understand progress is gonna take a long time.

All any other tactics, like illegal ways of advocacy(if you know what I mean) will serve to do is create a New Dark Ages in the US. Socially, politically and economically.

[closeupready]

24. I think you are completely correct. This is why, despite disappointments, I will vote Dem even

though many of them need to WAKE UP.

[jwirr]

9. Some where here in the archives is a foreclosure map of the USA.

Almost 3/4 of California is deep red meaning they have extremely heavy foreclosure rates. They are finally realizing what the price of supporting the pugs is.

[PatSeg]

27. I think a lot of them were voting AGAINST

the Democrats. Most were poorly informed and bought the hype about liberals and the usually white/male republican looked boring but safe.

[rfranklin]

32. The unqualified blacks and minorities took our jobs!

That is the meat and potatoes of the thinking that got us 25 years of Republican-led chaos. It worked well in the antebellum South for the Democrats until the Civil Rights Act was passed. The Republicans swept up the votes of all the anti-black and minority voters of the North and the South and the East and the West. Even clinton pandered to that sentiment with the "end of welfare as we know it." Meanwhile the Republicans were shipping the jobs to Mexico and then China and blaming it on affirmative action. People who didn't want to think or learn were conned like rubes at a three card monte game on the sidewalk in Manhattan.

[musiclawyer]

2. The central valley is becoming mexico

in terms of demographic, so not really surprising. Most mexicans and latinos in CA hate the GOP. They just need to increase their turnout to match their numbers

[XemaSab]

12. There's also a lot of white flight

from the Bay Area in the Valley, as well as immigrants from Asia and other parts of the world. :shrug:

[tjwash]

17. Nice...usually I have to call my race baiting brother in law to hear that kind of crap.

Turning into Mexico? :eyes:

First of all, there are more white, middle class, retired folks, moving to Fresno, Bakersfield, and Pismo from SOCAL and NOCAL than ever before. You can still get a house for much less in the central valley, and the traffic isn't nearly as bad.

Second of all...Latinos are a HUGE block of GOP voters; it's the pro-life issue mostly. Most of of my Latino friends here in Diego are VERY conservative.

[Xithras]

38. Ding ding ding! You are correct, and the OP was a bit off base

He's correct that the Central Valley is becoming more hispanic (several counties here now have hispanic majorities, and there are some towns in the valley that treat Spanish as the official language...seriously), but is way off on what that means here.

Most of the hispanics I know around here are conservatives. Even the Democratic hispanics are conservative. In Modesto, they're building a new Catholic CATHEDRAL to accomodate all of the new hispanic Catholics moving into the area, and the cathedral construction is being funded by donations from those new members themselves. I can assure you that those traditionalist Catholic hispanics are NOT "liberal" in any sense of the term.

[Dan]

25. Why do they hate the GOP?

[Auggie]

3. The numbers are up in Riverside too

"In Riverside County, Republicans have lost close to 34,000 voters since October 2004; in Orange County, an 18 percentage point Republican Party lead in 2004 is now at 14 percentage points."

[CatholicEdHead]

4. Fesno, isn't that Freeper Central?

[FreakinDJ]

7. YES - exactly

That is where the Domain name "FreeRepublic.com" is registered

A lot of "white flight" from the 90s and Americans immigrating to California settled there, only to find out it had a significant Mexican immigrant population as will.

Prussian Blue - was the Neo-Nazi singing group that also came out of Fresno

[XemaSab]

13. I thought Prussian Blue came out of Bakersfield

and you notice Kern county ain't on that list. :P

But on edit, there ARE a lot of Nazis in that part of the valley. x(

[ronnykmarshall]

20. Kern County will never be on that list.

My parents are like a blue dot in a sea of ugly red.

[Raster]

34. If the good Lord was gonna give the Earth an enema, he'd stick it in at Fresno.

[Heywood J]

42. RimJob must be loving that.

Watching the lawn signs around him pop up for Obama and Democrats.

[bemildred]

8. Finally getting tired of being raped by the Republican stooges they elect?

That would be a pleasant change.

[XemaSab]

11. .

:woohoo:

[hunter]

14. Quite a few of them got burned in the mortgage scam, I think.

I'm acquainted with a few Republicans who were buying houses or property "securities" like it was a game of Monopoly. A few of them lost everything, including their own homes. A couple of foreclosures and car repos will wake up anyone who's not a petrified old Republican.

A lot of this is demographics too. The old school California Republican population has grown sort of stagnant, and their kids and grandkids no longer understand the "family values" of racism and homophobia. Years ago in my own family, my old-school California Republican grandfather was upset that I was marrying, in his words, "a Mexican girl." People in his family just didn't do that.

[Arugula Latte]

15. But, but John McCain is going to take California!

That's what pwconservative.net says!

* * *

"Can McCain win California? Yes.

I've spent the last three weeks here in the Golden State, And From the San Joaquin Valley to Los Angeles I have seen potential for a 5+ point win. And that was before I found out about the McCain Campaign opening up offices here.

The Demographics seemed tailor made for the Democrats, But then Obama won the Democratic nomination. Now it seems that McCain has a terrific shot at winning the same demographics that would have worked against him otherwise.

McCain didn't listen to the hatemongers when it came to immigration, He took a tough principled stand and that earned him support from the Hispanic voters of California. On the other side. Hispanic voters are wary Barack Hussein Obama

McCain has stood with Israel, Been a good friend to the Jewish Community and Is not running against Hillary. That coupled with Sen. Liebermans support will carry a large chunk of the Jewish vote. On the other side. Obama has a scary history and is probably a Muslim (Otherwise He wouldn't so be so defensive).

McCain has a terrific environmental record, That plays well with the hippies. On the other side. Obama has no credibility on energy independance.

At heart California is still the state of Reagan and Nixon, McCain fits that brand. Mark my words, California will turn Red."

:rofl:

[aquart]

30. California is fighting fires with depleted forces.

California is suffering climate change in the wine valleys.

And if the Republicans think Lieberman can sew up the Jewish vote, have I got news for them.

[tjwash]

16. Big deal...now when Georgia, Mississippi, or Alabama turn blue I'll hop for joy

nt

[Texano78704]

44. Turn it blue

If Texas turns blue, the GOP can pretty much forget about getting back in the White House. And it is doable.

[LiberalFighter]

18. Are these numbers only for new registrations?

[LiberalFighter]

19. Generational change -->

Even worse for Republicans: Sabato -- who recently published a study on the issue -- called the voter registration shift "a generational change, and it will not be reversed."

[vanlassie]

21. Let's keep this article in mind when they try to steal California

[EFerrari]

29. Definitely. Good call!

:hi:

[LiberalFighter]

22. Numbers for Fresno County

Year * Democrat * *Republican
1999 * 147,296 * * 127,424
2000 * 139,604 * * 129,505
2001 * 139,978 * * 140,443
2002 * 129,951 * * 143,831
2003 * 147,039 * * 151,781
2004 * 133,364 * * 157,716
2005 * 137,089 * * 158,975
2006 * 127,793 * * 148,130
2007 * 132,055 * * 151,327
2008 * 139,805 * * 154,326 (Jan 22)
2008 * 140,507 * * 151,370 (Apr 4)
2008 * 142,485 * * 151,255 (May 19)

Does not include registrations as Decline to State or 3rd Party

[trudyco]

33. Why a big drop from 03-04 for the Dems? Doesn't smell right -nt

[LiberalFighter]

40. I only included the numbers for Democratic and Republican registrations.

I did comment that there were registrations for 3rd parties and the do not declare.

According to the article I believe there were registrations where the voter didn't want to declare any party.

[chat_noir]

23. Fresno? But that's FReeper head rimjob's town!!

:rofl:

:rofl:

:rofl:

[madmusic]

28. They don't claim to be Republicans

They send out spiffy and slick fliers about the energy crisis but only say on it "Member of Congress." It takes a little digging to learn they are Republican.

[Plucketeer]

31. 21st district's Rep, Devin Nunes

Now THERE'S a piece of work. Like Bush's Veto pen, Devin only came to life and started to find things to balk at once the Dems had the gavel. Now ol' Dev is holdin' the line for his "investors" in Tulare and Fresno counties. Talk about a "rubber stamp"!!! This guy's so acclimated to Bush's farts that he's gonna hafta go on life support come January 20th '09! :crazy:

[fascisthunter]

35. heck.... I'm Waiting for America to Give the GOP the Big Boot

or just a, "get the fuck atta here...!"

[KansDem]

36. GOP = "Get Out, Pronto!"

[skoalyman]

41. yep and stay out hopefully they'll never get another repuke in the white house ever

:7 hopefully the re puke party will go the way of the Dino's:woohoo: :applause:

[Xithras]

37. Yes, but we tend to elect Blue Dogs

I've lived here all my life folks. The region may be trending to the Democratic party, but it's still conservative as a whole. Instead of electing Republicans, we'll be sending conservative Democrats (Blue Dogs like Dennis Cardoza) to Washington instead.

Watch what you wish for.

[olddad56]

39. in a rigged election, the voters don't really matter

[Doctor_J]

43. Is Steroid Bubba still mayor of Fresno?

I thought that place was VERY right-wing. Look out for landslide.