AZ Dems claim major advantage in new voters; GOP says there's more to it: UPDATED

Newly released data from Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer's office shows the Arizona Democratic Party has grown its ranks by almost 20,000 registered voters since March, over twice as many as new Republicans or independents added.

According to the Arizona Republican Party, though, the secretary of state's figures can be misleading, and don't take into account factors such as purges in voter rolls, the impact of the Democratic presidential primary and underhanded tactics by Democratically-affiliated groups.

"Democrats' efforts to move Arizona forward and put this country back on track are clearly moving new voters to register as Democrats," said Don Bivens, Arizona Democratic Party chairman, in a release announcing the numbers. "These new registration figures confirm our Party's upward trajectory in Arizona. These new registrations also confirm our excellent opportunities to pick up Congressional and state Legislative seats in November."

Democrats have been making strides toward leveling the playing field with their GOP rivals in terms of voter registration since the 2006 election, and now lag behind Arizona Republicans by around 110,000 voters. In 2006, Republicans had over 150,000 more voters than Democrats in Arizona.

Sean McCaffrey, executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, recognizes the Democrats have done a good job boosting their registration numbers, but said the latest figures are far from the whole story.

"In some cases, because of the intense interest among Democrats in the primary on their side of the aisle, a lot of people were registered in their efforts, and by no means do I want to sell them short for great work they did," said McCaffrey. However, he also said that some of the gains may have come through illegitimate means.

"Lot of groups out there like ACORN and others have been banned in some states, and fined, and in some cases should be investigated by DOJ over questionable activities," McCaffrey said. "They've been either re-registering people incorrectly as Democrats or tricking people into switching their voter registration."

He also said that partisan county officials might account for some of the Democratic gains as well.

"Why are there places where only Republicans get purged [from voter rolls]? Why is it that in some counties people register as Republicans and keep getting Democratic voting cards?"

One thing both parties agree on is that independents are vital to their efforts.

"We'll continue our outreach to Independent voters and thoughtful Republicans on the issues that matter to American families," said Bivens. Sean McCaffrey vowed Republicans would do the same.

"The biggest gains this election cycle have been among independents," said McCaffrey, though the secretary of state's figures have Democratic gains topping independent in both the actual number of registrations and by percentage gain. Though McCaffrey asserted Republicans are "set" at the top of the ticket - meaning he doesn't think U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is likely to win the state over Arizona senator John McCain - "downticket races will be for hearts and minds of independent voters."

He also said the Democrats' gains are statewide, and while that gives them a head start on the state races in 2010, including for governor and senator, they do not necessarily reflect better chances of success in specific races this cycle.

"The voter registration efforts we’ve got going on this year are very targeted on legislative districts. A lot of gains the Democrats made were statewide - their resources are just grand," McCaffrey said. "The benefit for them is that they're months ahead of us for the 2010 elections. In the Legislature, though, we're looking at expanding our majority by at least a seat."

UPDATED 10:22 p.m.: Emily DeRose, communications director for the Arizona Democratic Party, has responded to Arizona Republican Party Executive Director Sean McCaffrey's claims that some underhanded means have been employed to suppress Republican voter registration.

"Sean McCaffrey hasn’t substantiated any of his claims," DeRose said in an email to PolitickerAZ.com. "This seems like they’re throwing any explanation against the wall to see if it will stick, rather than face the reality: People are excited by the Democratic Party’s vision for change, our commitment to a new direction for this country and our efforts to move Arizona forward."