New Poll Shows Most Sportsmen Tend To Be Environmentally-Minded Conservatives
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A new poll released today reaffirms what previous research has pointed out for years: America’s sportsmen strongly favor environmental protections over industrial development, regardless of their political affiliation.

The election-year poll, conducted by Chesapeake Consulting for the National Wildlife Federation, clearly targeted opinions of sportsmen based on their political affiliation. Responses to key fish, wildlife and environmental issues were divided by Republican, Democrat or Independent voters.

While the responses from Democratic sportsmen closely tracked their party’s support for those protections in Congress, Republican sportsmen clearly broke with the GOP’s recent agenda of rolling back fish and wildlife protections and programs.

Previous polls have returned much the same results, consistently showing sportsmen are national leaders in concerns for environmental protections, as well as early advocates for addressing climate change.

Key findings include:

• They strongly favor restoring Clean Water Act protections to wetlands and waterways.

• They think protection of America’s public lands should be given a priority, even at the risk of limiting the amount of energy supplies.

• They believe global warming is currently occurring and we have a moral responsibility to confront it.

• They overwhelmingly believe the economy can be strengthened and jobs created by investing in renewable energy while reducing global warming pollution.

• They believe fines paid by BP for the Deepwater Horizon disaster should be used to ensure the recovery of fish and wildlife populations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Chesapeake Consulting said of the 800 regularly-voting sportsmen who took the telephone poll, 42 percent indicated they were Republican, 32 percent Independent, and 18 percent Democrat. Of these, 27 percent indicated they split their ticket when voting.

Fifty percent consider themselves conservative, including 22 percent who consider themselves very conservative.

Sixty percent said they vote in every election, with an additional 21 percent indicating they vote in almost all elections.

See the full results of the poll here at 11 a.m.