Voters leaving the main parties and migrating to the nonpartisan column of registration is not new here in Nevada. But it is becoming so common that the nonpartisans in Nevada could easily swing just about any race on the ballot.
Sue Wagner was a prominent Republican who served Nevada as an Assemblywoman, a State Senator and as the first and only woman to serve as our Lieutenant Governor. She was a very popular lawmaker. And that was in part because she was a moderate Republican. She was fiscally conservative yet liberal on social issues, women's issues and the environment.
But - times have changed. Political parties have changed. And this year Sue Wagner walked away from the Republican Party.
"The last straw was the Tea Party," she said. "The last straw was that the Republican Party left me. More and more of the thing I felt strongly about and believed in were dismissed by the right wing of the Republican Party. I just felt more comfortable as a nonpartisan."
And she's not alone. A lot of other Republicans in the state and across the country followed suit.
"I got calls from people here and from Republicans in other states saying they saw the news and saw that I made the move and they did too," she says.
TMCC Political Science Professor Fred Lokken says in Nevada, the Republican Party is losing members because the state can't seem to find a focus. But he says the Democratic Party is losing members because President Obama has lost his luster and his popularity ratings.Â
"Really both parties are struggling right now. And that means the number of nonpartisans is way up. And in any close election on the ballot the nonpartisans will be deciding."
And with more nonpartisans registered in this state than the gap between the two major parties...it should be an interesting outcome next Tuesday.
