Field & Stream says more sportsmen will back Kerry!
Bush Environmental Policies Spur Some Outdoorsmen to Consider Kerry
By Judith Kohler
The Associated Press
Tuesday 19 October 2004
Denver - Bob Elderkin's vote would appear to be a sure bet for
President Bush on Nov. 2. He is a hunter, part of a
conservative-leaning group of outdoors people that is 38 million
strong and avidly supports gun rights.
But after backing Bush in 2000, Elderkin and some like-minded
outdoorsmen say the Republican won't get their vote again because of
his environmental policies.
"I can't vote for Bush knowing what it's going to be like the next
four years," said Elderkin, a retired Bureau of Land Management
employee in western Colorado where natural-gas drilling is booming.
"With John Kerry, it's an unknown. As far as Bush goes, it's going to
be, 'Katie, bar the door.'"
Sid Evans, editor of Field & Stream magazine, said American sports
people are divided on the president's environmental policies, finding
themselves torn in some cases between the GOP's Second Amendment
backing and a push to make more public land available for energy
development.
"I think that more will vote for Bush. I think they feel more
comfortable with him in general," said Evans, who estimated there are
at least 38 million hunters and fishers nationwide with an annual
economic impact of $70 billion.
Kerry has made a strong effort to be seen as a supporter of the Second
Amendment. He has gone on public hunts, taken time out for target
practice during the campaign, and declared flatly that he wouldn't
take away the firearms of sports people.
"Kerry is paying attention to this group in a way they have not been
paid attention to by a Democratic candidate for a while," Evans said.
Campaigning in Ohio on Saturday, Kerry picked up a hunting license in
a pitch to socially conservative Democrats motivated by values and gun
rights.
Alan Lackey of Raton, New Mexico, and Stan Rauch of Victor, Montana,
both Bush voters in 2000, said they are angry about the
administration's proposal to allow logging and new roads on up to 58
million acres of national forest that were declared off-limits by a
Clinton-era rule.
"Kerry, I believe, would be better on environmental policies, which to
me equates to taking care of habitat and wildlife," said Rauch, a
retired Air Force pilot.
A recent National Wildlife Federation poll said many sports people
disagree with the administration's environmental policies, federation
spokesman Vinay Jain said. The poll, conducted in July, found that 75
percent believe carbon dioxide emissions should be reduced and 49
percent think the oil and gas industry have the most input into Bush's
conservation and hunting and fishing policies.
"The poll affirmed what we'd been hearing for years anecdotally about
increasing hunter and angler backlash," Jain said.
The backlash is as strong in other parts of the country as in the
West, said Christopher Camuto, an outdoors writer in Lewisburg,
Pennsylvania.
"Everybody is looking at how little is left in the East. Most
sportsmen would want to hold the line at the roadless backcountry we
have left," Camuto said.
Kerry supports the Clinton administration's protection for roadless
areas in national forests.
Lackey, a car dealer in northern New Mexico and a former hunting and
fishing guide, has helped organize opposition to a proposal by
Houston-based El Paso Corp. to explore for oil and gas in half the
100,000-acre Valle Vidal. It is home to the state's largest elk herd
and some of the few remaining populations of native wild trout.
"Sportsmen are predominantly Republican and very patriotic," Lackey
said. "But the federal government has become an instrument to convey
the public wealth into private hands at our expense."