Why, you may ask, is the meteoric rise of Newt Gingrich giving so many in the Republican establishment a bit of holiday-season indigestion?

Look no further than party leaders' worries about the shaky Gingrich relationship with a category of Americans who may matter more than any other in the 2012 election: independent voters.

While the coming presidential primary season has visions of dueling Democrats and Republicans dancing in our heads, the fastest-growing voter category in the country is the group of voters who count themselves as none of the above. As disdain for the two main parties grows, it shouldn't come as a surprise that record numbers of Americans are registering as independent voters.



It is also the fastest-growing category in the states likeliest to decide next year's presidential election. A new study of voter registration by the Third Way, an organization that promotes the ideas of moderate Democrats, finds that in the eight presidential battleground states where voters register by party, the number of independent voters has risen since 2008, while the number of those registering as either Democrat or Republican has dropped.

In those states—Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina and Pennsylvania—the number of registered independents rose by 3.4%, those registered as Democrats dropped 5.4% and those registered as Republicans fell by 3.1%. That trend line is an important opening for the GOP. Indeed, Third Way analysts frame the picture as one that ought to worry Democrats.