Number of Democrats grows by 8,300 in 6th District

An increase in the number of registered Democrats and a decrease in Republicans in Kentucky's 6th Congressional District would appear to favor Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler in his rematch with GOP challenger Andy Barr.

The State Board of Elections released updated registration statistics Wednesday showing that 292,805 Democrats registered to vote in the 6th District. That's up 8,281 voters from 284,524 in 2010 when Chandler first faced Barr. Meanwhile, Republican registrations fell by 3,890 from 170,678 to 166,788. The change is largely due to a redistricting plan approved by the state legislature earlier this year.

The campaigns differed on the significance of the change.

"This shift absolutely benefits our campaign," said Chandler spokeswoman Meghan Groob. "While the registration advantage is big, you can't underestimate the fact that folks in the new counties already know and respect Ben Chandler. He represented these counties for eight years as attorney general and 4 years as state auditor, and he's looking forward to representing them again after the election."


http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/state/number-of-democrats-grows-by-in-th-district/article_893ef318-45b7-5571-adb5-0e38b76fca75.html