Ventura County Democrats can bring with them to Sacramento a smidgen of good news when they arrive at this weekend's state Democratic convention.

According to Secretary of State Bruce McPherson's registration report 60 days before the June 6 primary, Democrats have made slight gains in Ventura County. Since 60 days before the 2004 presidential general election, they have cut the Republican advantage in the county from 11,189 to less than 10,000 — to be precise, 9,947.

The intriguing part is that most of the gain has come in the GOP bastion of Thousand Oaks, where Democrats have gained 414 voters and Republicans have lost 227. That means Democrats have cut into the Republican edge in Thousand Oaks by a full 1 percent -- not much, but statewide Democrats would surely take it.

The 60-day report shows that the Democrats' advantage over Republicans statewide continues to shrink. In that same time span — since the 2004 presidential election — the Democrats' edge has shrunk from 8.2 percentage points to 8.1.