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.

[MIDad23]

I read a good quote one time in some conservative web site regarding Democrat courting of NASCAR dads:

"Your average NASCAR fan may not have gone to Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, but he knows when someone is pissing on his leg and telling him it's warm rain."

[pissant]

Expect hundreds more MSM articles in the coming weeks to go with the hundreds already written: Dems make inroads in NASCAR, Evangelicals, Churchgoers, Country Music Fans, Military men, security moms....you name it, the AP will have a wet dream fantasy about it.

[Coldwater Creek]

It is a shame that 50% of the country choose to be ignorant or believe a lie.

[eeevil conservative]

dems trying to reach NASCAR FANS?


HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TennTuxedo]

You are not looking at the numbers I had the privilege to see. I saw the demographics of those who actually have spent money on or at NACAR.

[Republican Red]

From Redstate

Donald Lambro, who is one of my favorite political writers, has some news for all the Doom & Gloomers out there. Things aren't great for Republicans, but they really aren't that good for Democrats right now either -- it's just that the media is not really talking about that side of the polling.

First, there is the right track/wrong track polling we hear a lot about:

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll of 1,001 Americans, including 813 registered voters, conducted last week found that 71 percent think the country is on the wrong track, compared with only 26 percent who say it's going in the right direction.

But then, there is this:

But an earlier poll of 1,047 Americans conducted for CNN by Opinion Research Corporation from Aug. 2 to 3 drew a dramatically different response when it asked people, "How well are things going in the country today?"

A combined 55 percent said things were going "fairly well" (47 percent) or "very well" (8 percent), compared with those who said "pretty badly" (29 percent) or "very badly" (15 percent).

And if you don't think that is significant, try this one on for size:

"Only 41 percent of Americans believe that Democratic leaders in Congress 'would move the country in the right direction,' " Mark Preston, CNN's political editor, writes on the network's Web site. That is slightly less than the 43 percent of Americans who believe that Republican leaders in Congress 'would move the country in the right direction.' "

Lastly, 41% of independent voters are still undecided. With the Democrats offering no concrete agenda other than "cut and run," the race for November can still be won by the GOP.

(I should add that I expect the majority of undecided voters to go with the Democrats -- if you're still undecided about the GOP after twelve years in the majority, you probably won't choose them in the end -- but with 20% already going to the GOP and more to shift that way, it could be the difference between just losing seats and losing the majority)

[no dems]

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

Add "ignorant Red Necks" to you list of adjectives the Dems have for NASCAR fans as well.