MontCo GOP head wants to bring voters back to the party

Montgomery County Republican Committee Chairman Robert Kerns invites recently-registered Democrats to come back to the GOP.NORRISTOWN - The Montgomery County Republican Committee on Tuesday announced a major voter registration drive, with party leaders saying they hoped longtime Republicans who had changed registration to participate in April's historic Democratic primary would return to the GOP.

Addressing reporters outside the county courthouse here, county GOP chairman Robert Kerns called on recently-registered Democrats to return to the party that, until April, had controlled the county for decades.

"We hope to bring the little elephants home," Kerns said. "It's time to come back to the Republican Party."

Throughout the state, and especially in the Philadelphia suburbs like this one, Democrats saw a surge in registration in the week leading up the presidential primary. Some Republicans switched parties just to participate in the close primary race. Some switched citing festering concerns with the party and President Bush. Others said they switched specifically to vote against eventual winner U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Kerns alluded to all three types of voters in his brief afternoon remarks, and said it was time for voters to come back.

"This county deserves to be Republican, it has been Republican and should be Republican," he said.

The shift in voter registrations, echoed throughout the state, gave Democrats in Montgomery County a demographic advantage for the first time in decades.

Kerns said seven people had already been hired for the drive and that more were coming to "pound the pavements." He said the drive would start by focusing on areas where strong Republican candidates are running.

Asked if there was a specific goal in mind for how many voters the party hopes to regain, Kerns said: "Everybody in Montgomery County should be Republican."

Early indications throughout the state have not fulfilled Republican hopes that the party would be able to stop the bleeding. In a statement responding to the GOP registration drive, county Democratic Committee chairman Marcel Groen said he expected most new registrants to stick with their new party.

"By and large, Republican voters did not switch to play havoc with the Democratic primary as Rush Limbaugh would have you think," he said. "Neither did they switch on a lark to vote in a more exciting primary. They switched because the Democratic Party is offering better candidates and the Democratic party is on the right side of the issues that Americans-Republican and Democratic-care about."

Democrats currently hold a registration edge of about one million voters in the state, the largest advantage either party has had in years.