Deadline
Today marks the last day that PA voters can change their registration to cast ballots in the closed Democratic primary April 22. It's a critical date for Barack Obama's campaign, which has been running a not-quite-under-the-radar voter registration drive, aggressively recruting indies and Repubs to participate in the Dem primary.
For the week of March 10th alone, 22,152 people changed their registration to Democratic, according to the PA Secretary of State's website. Since February 5, the number of newly registered Dems has spiked, with several thousand registering every week.
A word of caution before assuming that Repubs and indies could tip the Dem primary. New voter applications have also increased. The week of the Potomac primaries, more than 10,000 people registered to vote, when Obama was riding high on a winning streak. That number doubled the week of March 10th, when over 20,000 people registered to vote following Hillary Clinton's wins in TX and OH. Several thousand voters have been registering to vote in PA every week since the first of the year.
So are these new voters leaning toward Clinton or Obama? The Obama campaign has been credited with bringing new voters into the process, but enthusiasm for primaries has been high across the country and in OH, a state similar to Pennsyvlania, turnout favored Clinton. It may not be known who these voters support until election day, but if the Obama campaign is registering voters along with getting them to change parties, it would seem likely that they are targeting areas that could benefit them - such as the suburbs of Philadelphia and, of course, college campuses.
Does the focus on indies and Repubs mean that the campaign can't win over the working class, largely white Dem voters that predominate here? It remains to be seen, but there is one argument in favor of Obama pushing voter registration changes with Independents and Republicans now - it could help the campaign in a general election race in Pennsylvania.
Voting is like muscle memory. If indies switched their registration and voted for Obama in the primary, they may be more likely to cast a ballot for him in the general.
(NBC/NJ's ASWINI ANBURAJAN)
I envy the people of PA for having the opportunity to vote after Obama's vetting process has begun. Millions of us in the earlier states are suffering from buyer's remorse because we voted for Obama without knowing his true character. I implore the good people of PA to help us right this ship by rejecting Obama.
I envy the people of PA for having the opportunity to vote after Obama's vetting process has begun. Millions of us in the earlier states are suffering from buyer's remorse because we voted for Obama without knowing his true character. I implore the good people of PA to help us right this ship by rejecting Obama.
Luckily, Janet, most Democrats I know in my little corner of Pennsylvania will be voting for real, substantive change on April 22 by voting for Obama.
It's sad that so many Clinton supporters like Janet feel the need to denigrate Obama personally. That type of direct personal attack is exactly the kind of politics that we need to get past as a country.