LAS VEGAS-New voter registration numbers, released yesterday by the secretary of state's office, show that state Democrats have improved on the advantages they've gained in the last several months and are now in an even stronger position to pick up seats on the assembly, state senate and congressional levels.

Democrats, who had trailed Republicans in overall voter registration as recently as March of 2007, now have 441,676 active registered voters in Nevada as compared to 396,489 Republicans. Although both parties picked up voters, the Democratic advantage has swelled to 45,187 registrations, up from slightly more than 40,000 just a month ago.

"This is just an incredible shift in voter registration," said Kirsten Searer, deputy executive director of the Nevada Democratic Party, today. "The interesting thing about this is, at this point this isn't just caucus returns. For a long time, we were getting a boost because county registrars were going through the voter registration forms from the caucus. We're beyond that and we're still seeing a huge uptick in voter registration."

Searer noted that although Democratic voter registration drives have begun in targeted districts, most of the improvement has come from voters registering on their own, without contact from the state or county parties.

"And that is incredibly encouraging so early in the presidential election," said Searer. "A year ago, no one would have believed it."

Democrats recorded gains in what are expected to be some of the hottest-contested races in the upcoming election cycle, including Republican Congressman Jon Porter's 3rd Congressional District, where Democrats now outnumber Republicans by 21,430, up 1,318 from last month, Republican state Sen. Bob Beers' 6th Senate District, where the slim Democratic lead has swelled to 375 votes from 222 last month, and Republican state Sen. Joe Heck's 5th Senate District, where the Democratic advantage is now over 2,100 registrations, up 260 from last month.

Around the state, Democrats added to their advantage or narrowed the gap slightly in every senate district up for election this year, with the exception of state Sen. Dean Rhoads' rural district, where Republicans added just under 100 registrations.

"Obviously, it would be natural to be concerned about the numbers, but at the same time we're going to be doing everything we possibly can to cut into those," said Zach Moyle, executive director of the Nevada Republican Party. "We absolutely feel that the way the numbers are reflected today is not going to be what they are on Election Day."

"In addition to that, we feel very strong about our GOTV efforts, we feel very good about the fact that John McCain will be a terrific nominee and he also will play very well with third-party voters which make up a significant number in the state."

Although Democrats have improved upon their statewide registration outlook, they are still lagging behind the GOP in candidate recruitment. Currently, there are declared Democratic challengers in only two Republican-held and one open Democratic assembly seats. Republicans, in contrast, have fielded candidates in five Democratic-held seats and have candidates for two Republican-held open seats plus one primary challenge. In the state senate, although Heck is considered a top target, no Democrat has yet announced a challenge.

"It's too early to think that we need to have all these slots filled," said Searer. "Our leaders have identified several potential candidates who would be excellent challengers and we feel very good about our candidate recruitment process at this point."