Democrats eye inroads among NASCAR fans

al REUTERS via The Washington Times ^ | August 20, 2006 | Ben Klayman

[neverdem]

    INDIANAPOLIS -- Travis Johnson is just the type of voter the Democratic Party hopes to win back in its effort to regain control of Congress in the November elections.

    Baking in the sun at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the 23-year-old Danville, Ill., resident wears a black T-shirt sporting NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson's face. He looks like the epitome of the young, white, socially conservative, working-class voters who have been key backers of Republicans in the past decade.

    But with U.S. troops dying in Iraq, unrest in the Middle East and gasoline prices soaring, he is not sure how he will vote.

    "For the most part, I'm a tossup. I'm not dedicated to either party," Mr. Johnson said earlier this month as he and 270,000 other fans waited for the start of the Allstate 400 race.

    While such indecision presents an opening for Democrats, Republicans remain the party of choice among the fans who have made NASCAR one of America's most popular sports.

    "I would dearly love for the Democrats to spend millions of dollars trying to persuade NASCAR fans to vote for the Democrats," Republican pollster Whit Ayres said. "They tend to be disproportionately Southern, disproportionately white and disproportionately male, which pretty well defines the core of the Republican Party."

    NASCAR fans, or more specifically "NASCAR dads," were highly courted voters in 2004. The term "NASCAR dads" is shorthand for blue-collar, mostly white, Southern men who support the U.S. military, like to hunt and enjoy watching cars race around asphalt tracks at speeds of up to 200 mph.

--snip--

    Polling this month by Zogby International found that while more than half of NASCAR fans voted for President Bush in 2004, 56 percent now say the country is on the wrong track.

[neverdem]

IMHO, right track - wrong track is the lamest question in polling.

[gaijin]

Aim cumming for you, Ricky Booby....!

[John Jorsett]

Perhaps Mr. Johnson's vote might be influenced if he knew that Democrats think NASCAR fans are knuckle-dragging, illiterate, sister-marrying dimwits ...

[Joe Boucher]

Yeah, liberal dems blend with God and country N.A.S.C.A.R. fans.
Hell America dems and N.A.S.C.A.R. fans are oil and water.

[butternut_squash_bisque]

"Baking in the sun at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the 23-year-old Danville, Ill., resident wears a black T-shirt..."

Not the brightest bulb in the box, unless he's got an umbrella. Too many (pisswater) Buds/Busch/Coors/Millers will do that to a person.

NASCAR isn't going liberal-demokkkRAT, no matter how hard the lib-dem traitors wish it so. They can *poll* their fricking brains out, but it isn't going to happen, IMO.

[gaijin]

"I would dearly love for the Democrats to spend millions of dollars trying to persuade NASCAR fans to vote for the Democrats," Republican pollster Whit Ayres said.

Why would he say that? Precisely because he knows it would be a lost cause.

Like Air America.

[MAD-AS-HELL]

[Normal4me]

Holy pop-ups Bat Man! Does Washtimes always throw so much crap at your computer?

You're supposed to be a liberal when you are young and naive. Some people never out grow it however.

[singfreedom]

Yeah, like The Washington Pus and the NYSlimes. They have morphed from the hippie mindset to the traitorous mindset.

[Nick Danger]

Yep. "Wrong track" can mean, "Why aren't we bombing the Hell out of them? Iran, too, for that matter. And besides that I'm sick of gays trying to get married." Such people may be unhappy with Bush, but that is not going to translate into votes for Democrats.

[bmwcyle]

The Washington Times jumped the shark back at the end of the Clinton admin.

[End Times Sentinel]

"For the most part, I'm a tossup. I'm not dedicated to either party," Mr. Johnson said earlier this month
Somehow, to a delusionally hopeful Democrat, this translates into "I think I'm going to consider voting for the party that supports gay marriage, backing down from muslim terrorists, state funded abortion on demand, and keeping my kid out of college because he's white."

Owl_Eagle

If what I just wrote made you sad or angry,
it was probably just a joke.

[goldfinch]

First the security moms and now the Nascar dads. The media wing of the Democratic party is picking up the pace, cracking out the propaganda. And we are supposed to think the MSM is more credible than blogs...

[South40]

[Eagles Talon IV]

Lame isn't nearly enough to describe this question. To ask such a question and not follow it up with a "Why" leaves the results open to any interpretation one desires.

I myself think the country is on the wrong track because the media and the Democrats are more interested in helping our enemy by trashing the president and making public our surveillance programs then winning the WOT and in the mean time protecting the citizens of the country.

[al baby]

Perhaps Mr. Johnson's vote might be influenced if he knew that Democrats think NASCAR fans are knuckle-dragging, illiterate, sister-marrying dimwits

I anm so !!!

[RegulatorCountry]

Much like McCain and Southern Baptists, the Dims won't be able to disguise their disdain long enough to fool NASCAR fans into voting for them. They'll spend a lot of money, run the risk of alienating their kook base, and end up stepping in it bigtime with the NASCAR crowd anyway.

So, I say, go for it ... brilliant strategy, Dims!

[billhilly]

Remember the soccer moms who elected Al Gore and then John Kerry?

[Caramelgal]

So how would this poll interpret someone like Clarence Thomas? He’s Black, he was appointed by a Republican POTUS, he’s Catholic, he’s conservative and pro-life, and he’s a big NASCAR fan….

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I think we should help the Democrats with some slogans so they can make inroads into this demographic. How about;

"Even though we hate you and everything you value, vote Democrat anyway."