A Damn Good Shot

National Review
March 1, 2004, Monday

Hunting for Votes

Hunting and fishing may not be politically correct, but there are 47 million hunting and fishing enthusiasts in America. Add in some sympathetic family members, and suddenly the sportsmen's vote looks pretty significant.

Nearly all recent presidents have enjoyed either hunting or fishing, or both. President Bush went quail hunting with his father on New Year's Day, but his most often-publicized hunting trip came a few years ago, when he went dove hunting and mistakenly shot a killdeer--a protected species of shorebird that looks a lot like a dove. Bush reported himself to the local game warden and paid the fine with no qualms.

Late last year Bush showed his support for sportsmen at a one-hour meeting in the Theodore Roosevelt Room, where he sat down with representatives of twenty20 sportsmen's organizations. This is the first time in at least a decade that sportsmen's organizations have been invited to the White House.

At the meeting the president stated that the "spirit of the outdoors" was important to him and his administration. He felt that his was among the more outdoors-oriented administrations, which puts him in the company of Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

And he's backing up these words out in the field. Under the present administration, fifty U.S. Fish and Wildlife refuges have been opened to hunting or fishing, and last September the administration supported an initiative of the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation to increase public access to federal lands. The president has also asked for $22.6 million more for Fish and Wildlife next year.

Yet while the president has the support of many sportsmen, he has also received criticism from a number of groups regarding the administration's plans for energy exploration and development in wild areas, including a plan to put new roads in roadless areas--especially the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.

More than 400 gun clubs across the nation object to the Forest Service's plans for development. A poll conducted by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Alliance found that 76 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of independents, and even 58 percent of Republicans support protecting these areas.

One might think that an overwhelming majority of hunters are Republicans, but that's not necessarily so. The three states with the largest numbers of hunters--Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin--are where labor tends to support Democrats, and the south has a strong "conservative Democrat" constituency.

When he ran for president, Al Gore seemed to forget the popularity of hunting, fishing, and shooting, and many pundits have suggested that Gore's rejection of his roots (along with his anti-gun positions) figured very much into his loss of the election.

Democrats seem to have learned from Gore's mistake. But as John Lott and Grover Norquist have recently pointed out, the candidates also support some gun-control issues, such as assault-rifle bans and gun-show and concealed-carry restrictions. President Bush, however, also supports the assault-weapon ban.

Tom Daschle as well as nearly all the Democratic presidential candidates this year have come out as pro-Second Amendment. Daschle also supported S.659, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which "prohibits any qualified civil liability action from being brought in any state or federal court, and ... requires the dismissal of pending actions." This earned him "thanks" from the NRA.

Before dropping out of the primaries, Gen. Wesley Clark claimed that he was a hunter, and Howard Dean talked about hunting and fishing as well as his support for sportsmen's issues in Vermont. Many of my neighbors in the liberal San Francisco area adore Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, but even he has come out saying that while he's "sensitive to guns...[it's] possible to have gun laws that in no way interfere with hunters."

John Edwards has spoken of how he grew up in the rural South where hunting was common, and that he hunted as a boy and believes in Second Amendment rights (with limits). He's a member of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, and says in his "Real Solutions for America" that he wants a moratorium on offshore oil drilling, supports National Parks, opposes "improper logging" in the Tongass National Forest, and would permanently ban development on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Edwards also answered a Humane Society of the U.S. questionnaire about his views on animals, saying that he supported a bill to prohibit the transporting or possession of exotic animals for canned hunts, a position most sportsmen would support.

John Kerry caught the attention of hunters when he invited the press to go along on a pheasant hunt in Iowa last November. On that hunt he killed two roosters with two shots. Personally, I think that hunt was a critical factor in his winning in Iowa, which began his long run of victories. By inviting the press along to photograph him as he bagged two birds with two shots, he proved that he was both a hunter and a damn good shot--and also that he's not afraid of any animal-rights backlash.

Some hunters also felt an instant kinship with Kerry. As Ryan McKinney, the Iowa farmer on whose property Kerry hunted, said, "It feels a little safer if your presidential hopeful isn't going to go after your typical normal shotgun."

Bush, Kerry, and Edwards all seem to recognize the power of the sportsmen's vote. As well they should: It's a diverse group that could help decide this fall's election.
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--James Swan is a contributing editor of ESPNOutdoors.com. He also writes for the Outdoor Channel's Engel's Outdoor Experience.