With a hotly contested mayoral primary on tap, the city’s Democratic Party ranks are growing quickly.
Heading into the primary, there are several hundred newly registered Democrats on the rolls.
The party claims the allegiance of 40.7 percent of the city’s 31,622 registered voters, an increase of more than 3 percent since last November.
"An awful lot" of new voters have poured into the registrar’s office to sign up so they could vote in Tuesday’s primary, said Bob Badal, the Democratic registrar.
Nominee Ellen Zoppo and challenger Art Ward, both of them veteran city councilors, are locked in a hard-fought battle to claim the party’s mayoral line in the Nov. 6 general election.
If Zoppo wins, Ward will remain on the general election ballot as an independent, creating a three-way race that includes Republican Ken Johnson. If Ward wins, he would drop the independent bid and face off against Johnson alone.
Republican Registrar Ellie Klapatch said she’s seen a number of unaffiliated voters switch to the Democrats in recent weeks so they could cast a vote in the primary.
The GOP’s ranks have fallen off slightly since last fall. The party now has 16.8 percent of registered voters, down slightly from the 17 percent it had a year ago.
Unaffiliated voters, who cannot vote in primaries, have made up a majority of city voters since 2004. There is only one precinct in town where Democrats still outnumber independents: 77B, which votes at Northeast Middle School.
All in all, there are 13,479 unaffiliated voters, 12,797 Democrats and 5,302 Republicans. There are 44 voters who are signed up with a minority party.
Democratic voters made up more than half the electorate in Bristol a quarter century ago but their ranks dwindled steadily through the years until they hit bottom in 2004 when they had 39.5 percent of registered voters.
Last year, though, the party ranks began climbing again. The primary has merely accelerated the trend.
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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
2 comments:
By the way, it's possible to register -- or change your registration -- until noon Monday, if you go in person to the registrar's office.
If you mail in a registration form on Thursday, that will suffice as well, as long as it's postmarked Thursday.
I love it Democrats eat ther own.
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