Blue Dog Democrats and Decline to State voters are swaying California toward Ron Paul

Shirley Husar

LOS ANGELES, May 12, 2012 — Currently there's a bold new revolution going on in California, unlike every other time, this isn't coming from the Liberals on the Left or from Republicans on the Right, but from the Center. These people are beginning to adopt a new identity: the “Decline to State” and “Blue Republicans”.

These two groups, both inclined toward the Center or toward candidates outside of the mainstream, are poised to have a big impact upon California’s upcoming primary.



For starters, the Ron Paul supporters—many of them independents, Libertarians, or Democrats—are registering as so-called “Blue Republicans.” Not to be confused with the Blue Dog Democrats—the socially conservative and rapidly diminishing wing of the Democrat party—these voters are changing their party during the 2012 election cycle for the sole purpose of voting for Ron Paul in California’s Primary.

Their website states that these intensely passionate Blue Republicans who desire to bring a new vision to the White House, must register in California by May 21st in order for their votes to resonate within the California political system, especially the California Republican Party.

They are not alone in their passion and their desire to upset the system. In California, it seems that a large group of voters refuse to declare allegiance to either or any party, instead choosing to register as a “decline to state” (DTS).

These DTS voters are a highly sought-after voting block in California—and so coupled with the Blue Republicans, it appears that California is now becoming a very important swing state; even more so regarding the recent attempts to remake the GOP in a kinder and gentler image. According to recent polls, Ron Paul support in California is countable. This makes the Texas congressman an ideal candidate for DTS voters and Blue Republicans, because of his outside-of-the-mainstream views and his appeal to both sides of the aisle.

These “Ron Paul Deciders” could see the candidate as the payoff for their lack of support for a mainstream party candidate.

In an article to the Los Angeles Times written on 2010 April 4, Catherine Decker said of the DTS and Blue Republican voters:

"Nonpartisan voters account for 20% of the electorate in California. Their numbers began burgeoning as a consequence of deep economic changes in the state. In the early 1990s, the traditional defense, finance, and manufacturing industries that had powered the California economy and defined its politics began giving ground to information and entertainment companies. Their workers were more centrist, better educated, more diverse, and utterly uninterested in politics as it had been practiced by their parents' generation."

It appears that moderate, centrist, outside-the-mainstream candidates—such as Ron Paul—are the type of candidate that arouses the interest of this growing constituency.

There are several outlying reasons for this fact—a large state with several urban centers and many rural factors that bring a split in the voting—but the end result is that when the two major parties are as quarrelsome as they are in the Golden State, then the non-partisan or perceived outsiders gain strength.

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