Pennsylvania Voter Registration Soars

Both CNN and AP are reporting big increases in Democratic voter registration in Pennsylvania in advance of the April 22 primary. But there's an interesting and potentially significant tidbit down in the AP story:

_ The nine counties with the biggest percentage increases in Democratic enrollment since last fall — more than 5 percent — are mainly in two tightly contested areas — the Philadelphia suburbs and the state's vast central region.

I happened to be in Philadelphia to interview Gov. Ed Rendell today, and he mentioned those two areas--the Philly suburbs and Central Pennsylvania--as crucial to Obama's hopes in the state. Both are affluent and well educated, which fit the Obama demographic. They are Obama's most likely troves of votes, outside of heavily African-American Philadelphia.

Rendell himself carried much of that same territory in his own bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2002. He ended up winning only 15 of the state's 67 counties, he told me--but still managed to beat Bob Casey, the party establishment's pick, by a hefty 12 percentage point margin. Rendell, who is supporting Clinton, is determined that Obama not pull off a similar feat this time.