Party Registration Misleading, Poll Finds : More in State Say They Now ‘Identify’ With GOP

Around election time, hopeful Democratic politicians like to point out that there are more registered Democrats in California than there are Republicans--the current edge is 52% to 37%.

But a report released this week by the nonpartisan California Poll of San Francisco supports what Republicans have been saying for some time: Increasingly, the difference is only on paper.

A compilation of findings from three California Polls taken this year found that 46% of Californians now identify with the Republican Party, while 45% identify with the Democrats.

“We have been asking the same two questions since 1958: We ask which party the respondents are registered with and we ask which political party they identify with,” said Mark DiCamillo, managing director of the California Poll.

Gap Biggest in 1976

In 1958, 56% of the respondents said they identified with the Democrats and 37% with the Republicans. The gap was biggest in 1976, right after Watergate, with 59% identifying Democratic and 32% Republican. “Now it’s fairly equal, with the Republicans slightly ahead,” DiCamillo said.”

In Southern California, 50% of the respondents said they identified with the Republican Party, against 41% with the Democrats. In Northern California, the Democrats have the edge, with 52% saying they identify with the Democratic Party, against 41% with the Republicans.

DiCamillo also said: “You find that identification pretty much mirrored in registration up to 1974. . . . Now there is clearly a large margin (between identification and actual registration).”

Theoretically, reregistration by those Democrats who now identify more with the Republicans would wipe out the Democrats’ advantage on paper, but, DiCamillo said, “In order to reregister, you have to actually go out and do something.”

The three California Polls, which were conducted by Mervin Field, had a total of 3,540 respondents, a cross-section of Californians over 18. It has a margin of error of 1.8%.