GOP registration dips below 30 percent in Calif.

AP via SFGate ^ | 11/2/12 | HANNAH DREIER, Associated Press

[SmithL]

ACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California has reached an all-time high of 18.2 million registered voters, while the number of registered Republicans has fallen below 30 percent, signaling a worrisome decline for the state's minority party, officials said Friday.

In its final update before Tuesday's general election, the secretary of state's office said the number of registered voters has increased by 950,000 since the 2008 presidential contest. Officials attribute that surge in part to the state's new online registration system, which helped many young, Democratic-leaning Californians sign up to vote this fall.

That system was seen as a threat to the California Republican Party, which has struggled to retain members, let alone add them. The secretary of state announced that Republicans now make up 29.3 percent of the state's electorate, compared with 31.4 percent in 2008.

This appears to be the lowest ebb for the party since records have been available.

[dragnet2]

You bet.

[RightWingConspirator]

You are absolutely correct. When Californiacate goes bankrupt and President Romney and the Congress declines to bail them out you will see the number of registered Democrats drop dramatically as the illegals head back to Mexico.

[dragnet2]

Yup...But it is quite enjoyable to watch others with whatever agendas to just ignore the facts, and continue barking from the sidelines. Take care.

[dorothy]

I’ve been a registered decline-to-state for some time now, absolutely unable to attach my name to a party which continually ignores people like Bruce Herschensohn and Tom McClintock in favor of such disasters as Schwartzennegger. Thanks to our election rules, I am given a choice of primary ballots, R or D, so my vote still counts (well, makes an unnoticed statement really, since the Presidential/VP candidates are determined long before we vote).

And as to “California is rapidly becoming a state dominated by recent immigrants,” well. that’s how California got this way, only those the earlier immigrants were from other states, bringing their baggage and preconceptions of what California was with them. Having trashed their sandbox, they and/or their children are off to other states.

Just for kicks, you might ask the older, say over 25, incoming “Californians” where they were born and raised.

[Heff]

Simple answer.... the Republicans are leaving the state because they are smarter!!.... why stay, be over taxed, smog, and why would anyone want to be from the same state as the Golum and the Sea Hag!

[fr_freak]

I know you guys love to trash talk California because it allows you to pretend that your state doesn't have its fair share of left wing nutbags, but the explanation for the low Republican phenomenon is actually pretty simple: conservatives in CA generally don't bother registering as Republican. Why? Because the Republican Party sucks, that's why, and the California Republican Party sucks especially bad. I've been voting conservative since 1992, but I've never registered as a Republican. There's no point. We're one of the last states to hold the presidential primary, so the candidate is picked before we even get to vote.

Think of all the frustration we have with the Republicans at the national level, and multiply it by 10. That's the CA Republican Party.

[Wuli]

I’m very informed. I grew up in southern california. My parents and four of seven siblings remained there and my siblings had, or still have their families there. I became a NY resident in 1972, but have been back there often, every two years or so, on business and family visits; in every part of the state. I am very well informed on what is really going on there. California continues to have greater out migration of citizens to other states than in migration of citizens from other states, and that trend now exceeds new foreign immigrants there, illegal and legal, though they represent the only growth demographic in the state.

[Lancey Howard]

GOP registration dips below 30 percent in Calif.

Sounds like the taxpaying hosts ("Republicans") are fleeing and leaving the tax-eating parasites ("Democrats") behind.

[Lancey Howard]

Of course, in the end, who cares? The only danger to the nation is that California continues to welcome Mexican hordes and gains additional House seats and therefore, electoral votes. If only secession was viable for the civilized parts of California...

[Alberta's Child]

In some respects GDP is really a measure of consumption, not necessarily production. California has about 12% of the U.S. population but more than 30% of the nation's welfare recipients. That's a recipe for disaster -- and something that you'd typically find in a Third World sh!t-hole. That's also why California consistently finds itself facing state deficits on the order of 7%-8% of its budget.

Every dime that is paid to welfare recipients and then spent by those welfare recipients is included in its GDP, as is every dime that is included in California's massive deficit spending.

[Wuli]

I could care less if someone is “Hispanic” or not. We have “Hispanic” members in our family; though with descendents in Texas further back than the pilgrims they do not consider themselves “Hispanic” anymore than the descendents of the earliest Germans in Texas - before Texas was a state - consider themselves “Germanic”.

I DO CARE very much if someone is NOT here legally.

It is an assualt and moral afront to all legal immigrants.

Passive toleration of it says:

“F&*^%k You, you stupid idiot for coming here legally, for respecting the law, for doing everything about coming here in accordance with the law, for the agony of the bureaucratic mess of staying on the legal path to the end, for what those sacrifices meant to your children, and their future; all you had to do was get on a boat to Mexico and sneak across the border and wait, until the masses of illegals you came with and the open borders & amnesty agednda gave away for nothing what you sacrificed so much for. You you arrogant ‘legal’ immigrants, you were fools.”

Yes, the terms legal and illegal ARE important.

[clearcarbon]

"Officials attribute that surge in part to the state's new online registration system..."

[Usagi_yo]

Per capita?

[JCBreckenridge]

That’s just swell. Texas is at 3.5 percent growth, 4th in the nation.

[JCBreckenridge]

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/compare_state_spending_2013pF0c

Texas is only 2nd best in state spending though. Nevada spends less than us. *shakes fist*.

[GeronL]

That would be good to see

[jackmercer]

“In some respects GDP is really a measure of consumption, not necessarily production. California has about 12% of the U.S. population but more than 30% of the nation’s welfare recipients. That’s a recipe for disaster — and something that you’d typically find in a Third World sh!t-hole. That’s also why California consistently finds itself facing state deficits on the order of 7%-8% of its budget.”

GDP is production. Yes, consumption drives production but that is the case in every state and every mixed capitalist economy on earth.

Of the California residents on welfare, 75% of them are children due to the calWORKS program which requires the parents, mostly single, to work in order to get the welfare. No other state does this and if you drop the calWORKS program, that 30% share drops waaaay down. California voters are apparently ok with this because they continue to approve it and are ok being taxed to help hungry kids whose parents work. Kind of a decent program in my opinion as gives a strong incentive for parents to work and is compatible with Christian values of hard work and compassion.

Also, California has a budget deficit of $19 billion in a $1.9 trillion GDP state. Not sure how you get the 7-8% number. If California raises state income taxes 0.8%, their deficit is gone. That is the power of a $1.9 trillion economy.

On the other hand, Texas has a $1.2 trillion economy with a $25 billion deficit. So Texas has an economy almost half of California but a deficit that is 2/3 larger than California’s. They have this deficit while also having the honor of the most children in the country that have no health insurance. They need better management of their budget.

[Katya]

I live in an overwhelmingly blue state, and register as a democrat. The only power I have is voting in their primaries to vote the loonier ones out. I also need to have a say in who is elected to local offices. I imagine this happens pretty often in states that trend to one side or the other.

[Alberta's Child]

I subscribe to the Pat Buchanan theory that says government expenditures should be removed from all GDP calculations. There's very little about those expenditures that's actually "productive."

Also, California has a budget deficit of $19 billion in a $1.9 trillion GDP state. Not sure how you get the 7-8% number. If California raises state income taxes 0.8%, their deficit is gone. That is the power of a $1.9 trillion economy.

The 7%-8% is based on California state budget (about $130B, I think), not its GDP. And your point about raising income taxes 0.8% to eliminate their budget deficit is exactly how that place ended up where it is right now. California is already among the worst states in the U.S. for income taxes, and every time those rates are raised you find more and more productive citizens moving elsewhere. Haven't you figured this out yet?

On the other hand, Texas has a $1.2 trillion economy with a $25 billion deficit. So Texas has an economy almost half of California but a deficit that is 2/3 larger than California’s. They have this deficit while also having the honor of the most children in the country that have no health insurance. They need better management of their budget.

On a per-capita basis, combined Texas state taxes are a little more than half of what you have in California. It's one reason why Texas has been an high-employment machine in recent decades compared to California. One positive aspect of their low state spending is that they haven't attracted as many illegal aliens as California even though they have a much longer border with Mexico. One state falls all over itself to welcome illegal aliens and get their families on public assistance, while the other does not.

[dragnet2]

CA is the economic powerhouse of the U.S. Even when run by socialist and government control freaks.

Given this fact, it begs the question...What’s that say about other states, who’s economies are tiny and pale in comparison, as the loud mouths in other states bark from the sidelines?

Immigration?

Under Bush, more Muslims were allowed to enter the U.S. AFTER 911 than the previous *two* decades. During war time no less...

Under 8 years of Bush, tens of million entered illegally from Mexico, as he celebrated Cinco de Mayo up in the White House...Bush nearly made American citizenship all but pointless.