Apr 12 2008
R’s Switching to D’s in Droves in North Carolina
Not since the 1976 election has North Carolina held a presidential primary where candidates weren’t already decided. Now the numbers of switching voters, Bartlett said, are big enough that they could make a difference in a tight presidential race.”That’s what is driving all this jumping around,” said Michael Dickerson, Mecklenburg elections director. “It shows you’ve got a lot of people who want to have their say in the Democratic primary.”
Bartlett predicts an unprecedented turnout for the Democratic primary, at least 40 percent to 45 percent.
Dickerson warned that Republicans who changed parties to vote in the presidential primary won’t be able to cast votes for GOP gubernatorial candidates, or in any of the other Republican primaries.
“It’s not like they can pick and choose,” Dickerson said. “I don’t know if I’d have jeopardized my choice for governor in the Republican primary just to make a statement in another party.”
Many Republicans are willing to do that — at least for the primary.
I wonder how this will effect the Republican Primary for Governor. With McCrory leading by double digits, does this damper his changes or improve them? Which type of Republicans are switching over to vote in the Dem’s Presidential race?
Regarding Dickerson’s comments, I think the reason many Republicans are willing to forego voting for their gubernatorial candidate and instead putting their hands into the Democratic Presidential primary is because many people emphasize more importance on who the President is rather than their state or local officials. I find this to be flawed thinking. We are effected more every day by what our local leaders do than by most of what goes on in Washington. Furthermore, if we elected stronger local leaders who would stand up to an overbearing government in Washington I think we would come closer to solving many of our problems at the Federal level.
