MAHONING COUNTY Hunting for votes?

Bush supporters say the Democratic challenger is no friend to hunters.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, went hunting today in Poland Township in an effort to show sportsmen and hunters that he is one of them.
But officials with Ohio Sportsmen for Bush and the National Rifle Association, who recently endorsed President Bush's re-election bid, aren't buying it.
"These guys are in fits about this because John Kerry has credibility as a sportsman and a hunter," said Brendon Cull, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Coordinated Campaign. "For them to say he's not a sportsman and a hunter is wrong. He believes in the Second Amendment. This event is completely in line with who he is as a person."
Kerry has owned a firearm since he was 12, and "is genuinely excited to go hunting because he likes to do it," Cull said.
Kerry bought an Ohio hunting license Saturday in Pike County and said he planned to hunt in the state.
Hunting geese
Kerry hunted geese today at the Molnar farm in Springfield Township with U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th, Cull said.
Others in the hunting party were Neal Brady of Hocking County and Bob Bellino of Springfield Township, a board member of the local Ducks Unlimited organization. Afterward, Kerry was to meet with members of Sportsmen for Kerry.
The gun he used was a Beretta 12-gauge shotgun lent to him by Bellino.
The event was closed to the public and most of the press. The hunt's location was disclosed to the press this morning at the Holiday Inn in Boardman, where Kerry spent Wednesday night.
About 30 members of Ohio Sportsmen for Bush had a press conference Wednesday at the Austintown Sports Center, a business that sells guns and ammunition, to say the president is the best candidate to represent sportsmen.
"President Bush is not ashamed to be a sportsman," said Mike Budzik, the state chairman of Bush's sportsmen organization and a former Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Wildlife. "He's been a hunter and an angler."
Those at the press conference questioned Kerry's commitment to hunters and protecting the Second Amendment, even though the Democratic presidential nominee insists he is one of them and supports the right to bear arms.
"I like my guns, and I think Kerry has been back-stabbing us," said Shirley Williams of Hubbard, a 71-year-old gun collector and member of the Vienna Fish and Game Club. "He hasn't helped us for 20 years" in the U.S. Senate.
Experienced?
Those at the press conference questioned whether Kerry knows much about hunting. When asked by The Vindicator if they saw mistakes made by Kerry during a trap shooting event last month in Portage County, those at the press conference pointed to three errors.
They said Kerry pointed his loaded shotgun in the direction of a person nearby, an act forbidden among hunters, and he didn't wear safety glasses or ear plugs, items standard when trap shooting. "You can't fool a sportsman," Budzik said.
There are about 350,000 to 500,000 hunters and about 1 million anglers in Ohio, although some people are in both categories, Budzik said.
The NRA was to have a press conference today in Howland to discuss Kerry's position on guns and hunting. Scheduled to attend were Wayne LaPierre, the NRA executive vice president, and Chris Cox, chief lobbyist .
The two had a press conference in Howland last week to endorse Bush and announce the group's plan to spend $20 million in advertising to get the president re-elected.
Youngstown Mayor George M. McKelvey, a Democrat supporting Bush, said Kerry's hunting trip is nothing more than a publicity stunt.
"Do they really believe they'll fool some Ohio and national sportsmen that Senator Kerry took time out from his presidential campaign to go duck hunting?" McKelvey said.
McKelvey also criticized Kerry on the Rush Limbaugh radio show Tuesday about the hunt.
Political experts say Ohio is a key -- if not the key -- battleground state in the Nov. 2 presidential election. Most polls of likely Ohio voters have the race a statistical dead heat.
skolnick@vindy.com