Republicans messing with Democrat primary

Houston Chronicle:

At John's barber and styling shop in the historic downtown of this conservative community southeast of Austin, politics is clearly in the air these days.

What has particularly struck stylist Pete Campos is how many of his Republican customers are talking about voting for Barack Obama in the March 4 Democratic presidential primary, motivated more, he surmised, by a strong dislike of Hillary Clinton than a strong attachment to Obama.

"I think Hillary scares some people," said Campos, an independent who is leaning toward voting for the Illinois senator.

According to polling, as well as anecdotal evidence, an unusually large number of Republicans and independents may cast their votes in the Democratic contest next week, a prospect that could tip the outcome of what polls show is now a tight race. Such defections could also affect the many local and state legislative primaries around the state.

An American Research Group poll released Monday showed Obama leading Clinton, 71 percent to 25 percent, among Texas independents and Republicans who are likely to vote in the Democratic primary.

There is scattered evidence across the state that some Republicans may be voting Democratic, at least for a day. In one precinct in the suburban Houston neighborhood of Kingwood, where 82 percent of voters cast ballots for President Bush in 2004, Democrats were outvoting Republicans 4-to-1 last week in early voting.

Daron Shaw, a political science professor at University of Texas, said surveys he conducted in two state legislative districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area revealed that almost a quarter of voters with a history of voting in GOP primaries planned on participating in the Democratic primary.

...

I think they are doing it for strategic reasons, but I think it is a bad idea. It is however skewing the measure of intensity and giving Democrats an unwarranted since of optimism. I did not like when Democrats were voting for McCain in the New Hampshire and other early primaries and I don't think Republicans should be picking the Democrat nominee either.

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