The Louisiana Republican party says it is just 702 registered voters away from becoming the majority party in the state for the first time ever.
While the state has been voting solidly Republican for the most part for the past generation, registered Democrats still outnumber registered Republicans.
Foremer four term Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards once joked that Republicans in Louisiana numbered so few that they elected candidates in a phone booth. Pollster Bernie Pinsonat says it wasn't long after Edwards first two terms as governor that the state GOP began their turnaround.
"Starting in the '80s, the Republicans started climbing out of the hole they were in," said Pinsonat. "They got on a lot of right issues, they went and found good candidates. They began to dominate money raising."
Pinsonat says with the Republican party reaching such dominance, more of them may come around to Governor Jeff Landry's desire to return to closed party primaries, to present candidates that hew even closer to the party line
"My feeling is they're going to keep pushing until they get that, and I don't know how you stop it," he said.
Pinsonat says there may be a lot of no-party voter registration, but he says those voters don't go to the polls as often as voters registered to a party.
