Democrats hold edge in District 3

Kirsten Searer

Friday, July 23, 2004 | 8:36 a.m.

Aggressive voter registration drives recently have given Democrats an advantage in Congressional District 3.

As of July 1, Republicans held a slim lead in the district and outnumbered Democrats by 698 voters.

That GOP advantage narrowed to 55 voters on July 12.

By July 19, Democrats had reversed the lead, taking a 400-voter edge.

Freshman Republican Rep. Jon Porter currently represents the Congressional district and is facing Democrat Tom Gallagher, a former casino executive.

Porter campaign spokesman Mike Slanker said that Democrats are working to register anyone they can, but that doesn't mean the people will show up to the polls in favor of Gallagher -- or any other Democrats.

"God knows who they're registering," Slanker said. "I don't believe they're registering voters. I believe they're registering bodies. I bet they'll be lucky if 10 percent of the people they're registering will show up on Election Day."

A variety of Democratic groups have focused on voter registration efforts in Nevada, which is a battleground state in the presidential election.

The state party and national Democratic-leaning groups have been going door to door to register new voters.

"It's a combination of a bunch of factors culminating," said Gallagher press secretary Mara Gassmann.

She agreed that the real challenge will be to get voters to the polls, but she said that Democrats have formed a grassroots campaign to do it. Turning around the voter registration numbers so quickly "shows that our base is really fired up," she said.

Some of the new Democrats, she said, also are Republicans who are used to voting and have just changed their party affiliation.

Republicans still outnumber Democrats statewide, though the gap is narrowing.

At the end of June, Republicans held an 8,513-voter advantage in the state. The gains Democrats made in Clark County in the past few weeks have narrowed that lead to 5,140 voters.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax recently said that he has seen a dramatic increase in the number of voters and an increase in the number of potentially forged voter registration applications.

About 1 or 2 percent of voter registration forms turned in recently seem suspect, he said.

State Democratic Party spokesman Jon Summers said the change in voter registration could affect other races in the state.

"Trends like that are good news all the way up and down the ticket," he said.