California Democrats Shatter Record – In the final 45 days (60 days pre-election, December 7, 2008 to the January 22, 2008 15-day cut-off) prior to Election Day, the Secretary of State’s report of registration shows Democrats added 150,633 voters to bring its total to 6,749,406 or 43.0 percent of registered voters statewide.ÂÂ
Altogether, 244,202 voters were added to the voter rolls in this period, and the Democrats’ total of 150,637 registered is 61.7% of the total – a record for California. In comparison, in the final 45 days of the 2004 presidential primary, Democrats added only 68,007 voters, just 46.5% of the increase of 146,129.
“History is about to be made with either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama and Californians overwhelmingly want to be a part of the excitement as registered Democrats,†said Senator Art Torres (Ret.), Chairman of the California Democratic Party. “Our grassroots around California and the Clinton and Obama campaigns went all out to register Democrats, and we have not seen this level of enthusiasm in a presidential primary in decades,†added Torres. Combine this with the ratings of last night’s Democratic debate; ht to Media Bistro. Last night’s Democratic debate on CNN drew 8,324,000 million total viewers, making it the most-watched primary debate in cable news history, and the second-most watched on TV this election cycle (ABC’s Democratic debate on Jan. 5 drew 9,360,000). The debate gives CNN the top five highest rated cable debates this cycle in total viewers.Update: In the 25-54 demo, the debate finished with 3,257,000 viewers, the #1 take in cable news history as well.ÂÂ
Oh, and Republican registration declined to 33 percent.