Hunters, anglers pack election clout

Hunters, anglers pack election clout

Their numbers are huge and they get out and vote, politicians have noticed

By Juliet Eilperin

Washington Post

In the next few weeks, the camps of President Bush and challenger Sen. John Kerry will be rolling out their campaigns to win over what is often called the "hook and bullet" crowd.

Numbering about 50 million strong and living in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Arkansas, the men and women who hunt and fish in this country have become significant players in the presidential campaign.

These voters are attractive for a number of reasons. They tend to be politically active; 93 percent of registered hunters voted in the 2000 presidential election, according to a Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation survey conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide, well above the national average. Although they lean Republican - 46 percent, according to the CSF - nearly a third are independent and 18 percent are Democratic, leaving ample room for political appeals.

"This is not a monolithic community," said Chris Wood, vice president for conservation at Trout Unlimited.

Before the Democratic primaries, Kerry, who has been hunting since childhood, displayed his credentials by shooting two pheasants in Story County, Iowa, with just two shots.

Bush has wooed conservation group leaders at his Crawford, Tex., ranch and at the White House over the past six months.

The number of American sporting and fishing enthusiasts has declined slightly over the past decade: A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey reported hunters' numbers dropped from 14 million in 1991 to 13 million in 2001, with fishing aficionados declining from 35.5 million in 1991 to 34.5 million a decade later. But they constitute a huge voting bloc that often judges candidates on sportsmen's issues, and as consumers spent $70 billion in 2001.

In 2000, according to most accounts, hunting advocates judged Bush and Democratic nominee Al Gore primarily on their gun control stands. Seventy-eight percent of hunters surveyed by Roper Starch said gun control issues were "much" or "somewhat" more important to them in 2000 than in previous elections.

The battle over conservation is more complicated. Many hunting and fishing advocates have criticized the Bush administration for its treatment of wildlife habitat, whether it involves drilling for oil and gas near wildlife migration corridors or the prospect of easing regulation on public wetlands.

Paul Hansen, executive director of the conservationist Izaak Walton League, said although outdoors enthusiasts have been pleased with the administration's rhetoric, "on the ground, we've not seen the actions that support the words."

Bush has pledged to protect 1 million acres of the nation's wetlands from development and to add 1 million acres over the next five years and improve an additional million acres. Bush also approved hefty conservation funding as part of a recent farm bill.

James L. Connaughton, who chairs the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the administration has been "more successful than any previous administration" in protecting wetlands. James D. Range, board chairman of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, who met with Bush in the Oval Office, said the president "has a real interest in our community. . . . It's something you can tell he both enjoys and cares about."

"The sportsmen who will vote firearms first will vote for Bush," Hansen said. "The sportsmen who will vote conservation first will have a tougher choice."

BY THE NUMBERS

In their sights

According to a Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation survey, 93 percent of the nearly 50 million registered hunters and anglers in the United States voted in the 2000 presidential election. Although they lean Republican - 46 percent, according to the CSF - nearly a third are independent and 18 percent are Democrats.

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