The Arizona Republican Party is boasting in a newsletter that it has a voter registration lead over the Democrats.
But what Chairman Robert Graham is not saying is that while the GOP has a 5.5 percent lead over the Dems, they actually lost 17,000 registered voters in the last year, while the number of Independent voters increased by 43,000.
Party spokesman Tim Sifert says in a two-party system all that matters is beating the other party.
“You want to have a majority. And you want the other party to be in the minority. And that's the situation we have. So that's something we can celebrate,” Sifert said.
But Sifert’s counterpart, the Democratic Party’s Barbara Lubin, said she’s not concerned.
“The numbers aren't there. But what wins elections is how people vote, not how they register to vote. And the younger voters are with us on the vast majority of issues,” Lubin said.
But if winning elections is the standard, the Dems could be in trouble. Republicans won all of the statewide offices decided last year. Lubin said her party will have better results during the presidential year in 2016, when more of the younger voters who she says tend to vote with the Democrats will be more engaged in the political process.