Clinton Camp: "encouraging that independents and Republicans are switching to the Democratic Party" [View All]

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/01/politics/main3985904.shtml

Clinton-Obama Race Spurs Party Switches
Increasing Number Of Voters Switch Political Affiliation In Late Primary States

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Talk radio hostess Victoria Taft, a familiar Republican voice in the Democratic-leaning Pacific Northwest, said that even in her wildest dreams, she never imagined urging her listeners to vote for Clinton.

But these days, Taft is firmly on the New York senator's bandwagon, along with national conservative talk radio heavyweights like Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham.

“I want to vet (Illinois Senator) Barack Obama more than Hillary,” said Taft, whose daily program during prime evening drive-time reaches about 30,000 people. “We know what she is all about, but we don't know a stinking thing about him.”

...

In Oregon alone, in the past seven weeks, nearly 10,000 voters have refiled as Democrats, more than 1 percent of the state's 764,000 registered Democrats. More than 3,500 of them were Republicans; almost all of the rest had been nonaffiliated voters.

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Nick Shapiro, Obama's communications director in Oregon, said that if an organized effort to strategically cast conservative votes for Clinton did exist, it was a sign that “conservative Republicans are worried that Barack Obama can unite this country, and will get support from not only the Democrats, but independents and Republicans and propel him into the White House.”

Isaac Baker, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, however, called it “encouraging that independents and Republicans are switching to the Democratic Party, and joining our call to dramatically change course.”