The Elephant is back in the room.

After slipping to No. 2 behind the Democrats in the number of registered voters, the Republican Party has retaken the lead from what many see as a recession-weakened Democratic Party, according to the latest figures from the county registrar.

"Oh man, I love it," gushed Tony Krvaric, chairman of the San Diego County Republican Party. "San Diego is no different than what's going on nationally."

Not so fast, responded Jess Durfee, the Democrats' county chairman.

"I don't see it as momentum at all," Durfee said Wednesday. "What I see is a large outlay of money paying people to conduct registration drives."

The GOP, which uses the elephant as its symbol, launched a countywide registration drive several months ago to try and regain its position as having the most registered voters.

It worked.

The number of registered Republicans as of Wednesday morning was 511,655 compared with 508,305 Democrats. That reverses a slight lead Democrats took two years ago. Precise details on where in the county the Republicans made their biggest gains were not immediately available.

Democrats claimed the title shortly before the 2008 presidential election, when a majority of county voters cast their ballots for Barack Obama.

The slippage since then does in fact boil down to money, but not recessionary economics, Durfee said.

"They're literally paying tens of thousands of dollars to bounty hunters seeking to get people to register as Republicans, but the question is will these people be a loyal voter come Election Day?" he said.

Krvaric acknowledged the party is paying hired workers $5 per valid registration, but he said there's no question the drift is to the right and that Tea Party politics and disillusionment with federal spending is benefitting Republicans.

"Republicans are coming home, and we have independents and Democrats coming our way," Krvaric said. "We see it at our booths at street fairs and wherever we are."

Durfee said county Democrats, who last year had a 4,800-voter advantage over Republicans, are launching a drive this weekend to register more Democrats before the mid-October cutoff date for eligibility to vote in November.

"The numbers now are obviously a disappointment, but our program will kick in this weekend and we also will focus on students returning to campuses, who in very heavy percentages vote Democratic," Durfee said.

There's little question that Democrats nationally are worried. A recent Gallup poll that asked 1,540 registered voters nationwide which party they would vote for in November favored the GOP by 51 percent to 41 percent for Democrats. The poll had a margin of error of 4 percent.

The GOP needs 39 seats in the House and 10 in the Senate to regain control of those bodies.

Despite Republicans retaking the lead in raw numbers, the two parties are virtually tied, with each claiming just over 36 percent of county voters.

The fastest-growing group in recent years has been independent voters, who this week number 325,331, or 23 percent of the county electorate. They're the ones who bear watching this election cycle, according to Erik Bruvold, president of the National University System Institute for Policy Research in San Diego.

"To me, that's the really interesting local, as well as national, story," he said. "It's how those voters are going to break and how the campaigns are able to reach them that is really going to matter."

Call staff writer Mark Walker at 760-740-3529.