It’s a bump, but it doesn’t put a major dent into the status of Kansas as a red state.

Since just before the February presidential caucuses, the ranks of the state’s Democratic Party has grown by 13,294 voters while the Republican Party declined by 4,833 voters.

But about 45 percent – 739,020 – of the state’s 1.6 million voters are still registered with the GOP, compared with about 27 percent each of Democratic and unaffiliated voters, according to the Kansas Secretary of State’s office. The Reform and Libertarian parties make up the other

1 percent.

Democrats said the increase was a reflection of support for Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and other candidates in state and congressional races.

“It’s just more excitement about these candidates,” said Jenny Davidson, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Democratic Party.

Republicans agreed but said they weren’t worried.

They cited a recent Rasmussen Reports poll that showed huge leads in the state for GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., in his re-election bid.

“There’s a long way to go to catch up to our overwhelming advantage statewide,” said Christian Morgan, executive director for the Kansas Republican Party.

Monday was the deadline for voters to register to be eligible for the Aug. 5 primary election.

Unaffiliated voters have a lot of sway in Douglas County. In February, the county had 27,621 registered independents, 24,339 Republicans and 24,556 Democrats.

But Democrats made gains here, too. As of Monday night, the county had 26,158 registered Democrats and 23,601 Republicans. Independents still make up the largest voting bloc at 26,656 people.

County Clerk Jamie Shew said his office has fielded plenty of calls from unaffiliated voters because independents can change their registration to Republican on Aug. 5 at the polling places, or they can ask for the Democratic ballot in order to vote in those contests.

One pundit said the political climate has been tougher for Republicans nationally.

“It’s consistent with the national trends there has been basically in national polls,” said Don Haider-Markel, a Kansas University political science professor.

Because Republicans still have such a strong advantage in the state, the registration numbers should not mark great concern, he said, unless there are big changes in certain congressional districts.

“You’d need to see that over a few election cycles,” Haider-Markel said.