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Friday, April 11, 2008

'Rockefeller Republicans' abandon Montco GOP

Bob Kerns is going to have his work cut out for him when he takes over as Montgomery County Republican Party chairman on May 8.

The Republican Party finds itself in the minority for the first time in anyone's memory. Final numbers released by the county elections office show Montgomery County now has 247,378 registered Democrats compared to 237,986 registered Republicans.

Overcoming that 9,400 voter deficit will be a priority for Kerns, who is taking over for Ken Davis. When Davis took over as party chairman in 2004, Republicans enjoyed a 70,000-voter advantage over Democrats. (Was Davis in the dugout for the New York Mets last year?)

More than 19,400 Montgomery County residents switched their party registration since November, according to elections officials, who added that more 7,100 first-time voters also registered as Democrats.

Only 1,200 Montco residents switched their party registration to Republican since the fall and a paltry 2,600 new GOP registrations were recorded since November.

Montgomery County Democratic Party Chairman Marcel L. Groen told reporter Margaret Gibbons that the rise of the Democrats in Montco is not just the result of interest in the Clinton/Obama race. It's a 10-year trend that will continue, Groen boasts.

"Generally speaking, suburban voters are fiscally conservative and socially moderate," Groen said. "They used to be Rockefeller Republicans but now they're Democrats because there's no room in the Republican Party anymore for Rockefeller Republicans."

Read a story by Margaret Gibbons on the final Montco registration numbers in The Times- Herald.

2 comments:

John said...

Groen is right. The switch of the Rockefeller Republicans aka RINOS is just the finishing act in something that has been brewing for years, or Hoeffel would have never gotten elected in the old 13th and Gerlach would not experience so much in Lower Merion. With respect to the notion that they are fiscally conservative, to the extent that they are "conservative" at all, they are "big government conservatives."

Anonymous said...

If the soon to be "had been powers" in the Montgomery County Republican Party are any indication of the problems facing the Montco GOP (such as endorsing someone who only ever ran as an independent- and has never been on the ballot as a Republican, namely Lance Rogers). I do believe that the Voters and volunteer workers, the men and women of this party, are intelligent and will see through the lies and mis-information propugated by the Lance Rogers Campaign. First and foremost, I was present when the fire department photo was taken of Lisa Paolino and the area Fire Chiefs, it was NOT a 9-11 event- as is being widely rumored by the Lance Campaign, it WAS the 100th anniversary of the Bryn Mawr Fire Company housing ceremony, where both Commissionner Paolino and many Chiefs were there in their public capacities. Look for the truth and you will find it...

p.s . I would sign my name but there are numerous mis-information blog sites operated by what appears to be one individual who seems to be associated with the Save Ardmore Coalition (a noble cause) but the individual is operating numerous blog sites.