July 09, 2008 09:19 PM UTC

No NASCAR Campaigning? Dang

• 0 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As State 38 writes:

Watch out, racing fans.  According to an article in Politics Magazine posted yesterday, one of the owners of NASCAR tracks, the International Speedway Corporation (ICS), has declared that no campaigning will take place at any of the tracks they own – including those in Daytona and both candidates’ home states.

Interesting, because in 1992 then candidate Bill Clinton campaigned at an ISC owned track in Darlington, SC.  George Bush has done it, and as the Politics article points out, just this year Rudy Giuliani rode his campaign bus around the ISC owned track in Daytona, accompanied by music from the movie “Rudy.”

But now that Obama’s the Democratic candidate, all of a sudden it’s not OK?

I’ve lived in the South long enough to know what’s going on here, and I’m calling bullshit.  ISC apparently thinks having a black man campaign for president at their events would cause a disruption, but NASCAR fans aren’t the racists ISC thinks they are – and they should treat their fans with more respect.

ISC claims the policy has been in place for “some time” (since Giuliani lost, maybe?) but refuses to provide a copy.  Again, from Politics Magazine, “When asked if her office would be willing to produce the policy in writing for Politics, [ISC lobbyist Cheryl] Coxwell declined. ‘I don’t think at this point that that will do either one of us any good.'”

Yeah, no kidding.