Colorado Caucus: Unaffiliated Vote Growing

A few days ago I posted on the numbers of people who belong to the Republican and Democrat parties, and noted the large increase in the number of unaffiliated voters in Colorado, both newly registered voters who have yet to declare affiliations, and previously affiliated voters who have disenrolled due to enchantment with their party (or both, for that matter):



There are 2,890,852 voters in Colorado as of January 25, 2008:

1,011,152 Republicans--35.0%
880,761 Democrats--30.5%
998,939 Unaffiliated--34.6%

Yesterday, Colorado Public Radio featured some "unaffiliated" voters eager to gain some insight into their reasoning for remaining unaffiliated, or for leaving their current party (part 1). CPR then spoke to Colorado Republican Chairman Dick Wadhams and Democrat political consultant Mike Stratton on the challenges of campaigning for unaffiliated votes (part 2) in a state that has always featured a rather large "unaffiliated" bloc and that has also elected both Republicans and Democrats--in other words, a consistently "purple" state.

Given current trends, it is entirely conceivable that unaffiliated voters could outnumber members of both parties this year, especially if a great number of Republicans are disappointed in the eventual GOP Presidential nominee, and if current interest in the 2008 election encourages even more new voters who similarly disavow a partisan affiliation.