Democrats still hold narrow lead in registered voters

Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006

Of 52,466 voters in St. Mary’s registered by the Oct. 17 deadline, 22,473 (43 percent) were Democrats, 20,958 (40 percent) were Republicans and 8,235 were independents (16 percent).

St. Mary’s for decades was a Democratic stronghold. From 1946 to 1986, there were no Republican county commissioners. The party registration gap has been narrowing, but Democrats still hold an edge going into next week’s election.

In February 2004, 45 percent of voters were Democrats, while Republicans kept the same percentage as they currently do — 40 percent. In July 2002, 48 percent of voters were Democrats, while 39 percent were Republicans.

‘‘In the last four years you kept hearing, it’s about to happen, this longtime Democratic county is about to go Republican,” said Zach Messitte, director for the Center for the Study of Democracy at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

It hasn’t happened yet. ‘‘Take a look at the county commissioner races this year,” he said. ‘‘Nobody’s running against [Commissioner Daniel H.] Raley on the Republican side. [And] nobody’s running against [Rep. Steny] Hoyer on the Republican side” for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Julie B. Randall, former president of the county commissioners and chair of the St. Mary’s County Democratic Central Committee, said last week of the local party registration numbers, ‘‘As new folks move into the area and their association with the Navy, they are typically registered Republicans. However, the Democrats need to pay attention to the increase in our unaffiliated voters.

‘‘I have a lot of hope that our Democratic Party is seeing some shifts of being more moderate and being able to appeal to a broader range of folks,” she said.

Asked if she thought the number of St. Mary’s Republicans would overtake the number of Democrats in the next four years, she said, ‘‘I do not think you’re going to see that.”

Barbara Thompson, former Republican president of the county commissioners, said Monday she was glad to see the total number of registered voters so high. And the number of Republicans is at an all-time high. Years ago, ‘‘When we hit 10,000 we thought that was really something,” she said.

As for the increasing number of independents, Thompson said, ‘‘I think in general there is some disaffection with political parties,” though when a person doesn’t choose one of the two major parties, he or she can’t vote in a primary election.