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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rollcast... who wrote (4330)	8/5/2003 6:05:33 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793685

TIMES EDITORIAL Nascar's Swinging Voters [I] f you've got to have a gimmick in politics, Senator Bob Graham may have found the next big thing. Mr. Graham, one of a slew of Democrats running for president this year, has spent as much as $500,000 to help underwrite a souped-up Jack Roush pickup truck that has been screaming around some of Nascar's racetracks. After the Bob Graham Ford won a race in Kansas City, his campaign got thousands of dollars in free publicity as TV cameras followed the machine for a full victory lap. Politicians nowadays are setting their sights on "Nascar dads," as opposed to the oh-so-yesterday "soccer moms." Political consultants have no end of ways to slice and dice the always desirable uncommitted voter. Last time, she was a waitress. This year, he's rooting for Jeff Gordon. While the emergence of the "Nascar dad" might suggest that women have given up their position as queens of the gender gap, in fact the enormous Nascar audience itself has grown more female in recent years, as well as more middle class and less rural. The fans have a reputation for being fiercely independent, and there is nothing presidential candidates yearn for more fiercely than genuinely independent American voters ? ready to swing one way or the other at the drop of an argument, or perhaps a well-timed political pitch. Democrats are speculating that stock car aficionados are the very people whose jobs are in jeopardy in the sluggish Bush economy and whose families have been placed at risk by the administration's military pursuits overseas. So far, Mr. Graham has been working the Nascar crowd harder than other politicians. Right now, he's doing better at the speedway than in the polls.

To: Rollcast... who wrote (4330)	8/5/2003 6:15:10 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793685

Hustler magnate enters governor's race LAURA WIDES, Associated Press Writer Monday, August 4, 2003 ©2003 Associated Press (08-04) 19:27 PDT BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- Hustler magazine's Larry Flynt declared his candidacy for governor in California's recall election Monday, saying he would erase the state's deficit by allowing private casinos to install slot machines. Flynt said if elected he would also overhaul the state's education and prison systems and give amnesty to California's illegal immigrants, then shut down the border. He said he would consider legalizing prostitution. "Vote for the smut-peddler with a heart," will be the campaign slogan, said Flynt, who plans to run as a Democrat. The pornography mogul, whose empire includes numerous magazines, casinos, boutiques, online services and videos, is among nearly 300 people who have taken out papers to run in the October election to replace Gov. Gray Davis. Flynt, 60, said he hoped Californians would see past his profession. "I don't think the business I'm in has anything at all to do with being a good governor," he said. "Just because I publish pornography doesn't mean I'm not concerned about the public ills." This is not the first time Flynt has injected himself into politics. In 1998, during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, he ran a full-page advertisement in The Washington Post offering up to $1 million to anyone who could produce documentation of an adulterous sexual encounter with a high-ranking government official. He has also offered $1 million to anyone with new information on the assassinations of President Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1984 he ran for president, his publicist said. Flynt made the announcement from his Hustler offices in his trademark gold-plated wheelchair, flanked by replicas of ancient Greek sculptures and copies of his magazine. His wife, a daughter and his black schnauzer stood by him. A self-described libertarian, he said he has fought most of his adult life for the protection of free speech. "I even took a bullet for the First Amendment," he said, referring to a 1978 assassination attempt by a self-avowed white supremacist apparently angered over an interracial photo layout Hustler published. Flynt said tax revenues from slot machines, including those he would install in his two Los Angeles area card rooms, would raise $3 billion a year. He did not offer many other specifics on the policies he would support if elected, but he criticized Davis for allegedly pandering to special interest groups and failing to improve California's economy. "I may be paralyzed from the waist down," he said, "but unlike Gray Davis, I'm not paralyzed from the neck up." Flynt said he would conduct polls in the coming weeks to see whether his candidacy would be viable. He said he would put his name on the ballot either way, but would pump money into the campaign if the polls were encouraging. As one of his first campaign events, Hustler Magazine announced plans for a prayer gathering, "to pray to God for Fox News Channel blowhard Bill O'Reilly's death." O'Reilly spokesman Robert Zimmerman declined to respond. Also on Monday, a woman who said she was a former employee sued Flynt, claiming he fostered a hostile work environment. Elizabeth Rene Raymond, who is seeking unspecified monetary damages, alleged sexual harassment and wrongful termination. It was unclear what branch of Flynt's company Raymond worked for. Neither her lawyer nor Flynt's representatives immediately returned messages left for them sfgate.com