Snohomish County voters support building an 80,000-seat NASCAR racetrack by a 2-to-1 margin, according to a new poll paid for by speedway supporters.
Deborah Knutson, president of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council and a spokeswoman for Fans United for NASCAR, said the poll showed a “resounding yes” to building a speedway in the county.
“People want it. They’re looking forward to it being here,” Knutson said.
Track opponents said the survey might have been slanted in favor of the proposal.
The telephone poll was conducted by Moore Information of Portland and tapped the views of 350 randomly selected voters. It surveyed voters throughout all five county council districts July 11 and 12.
Fans United for NASCAR, a private group led by local business leaders, paid for the poll. Selected results from the poll were presented to reporters and NASCAR track supporters at a news conference Wednesday at the Quil Ceda Conference Center.
Kelly Middendorff of Moore Information said the poll showed that 60 percent of county voters support a NASCAR track. That number rose to 64 percent after poll participants were told positive things about the track, such as how much money racing events could bring into the county.
Most people who want the track said they support it because it means economic development, Middendorff said.
Poll results show that 67 percent of those who want a track support the idea for economic reasons and 10 percent support a track because they like NASCAR.
Those who don’t want a NASCAR track here are most concerned about increased traffic.
Marysville officials and other NASCAR supporters have been promoting the potential for a speedway in north Marysville for months.
International Speedway Corp., the motor sports giant that owns 12 of the nation’s major motor racing facilities, is looking to expand into the Pacific Northwest. NASCAR supporters have been pushing locations in Washington and Oregon. Snohomish County’s preferred location for a track is on 599 acres of land south of Highway 531.
Although Fans United for NASCAR did not release the complete poll results, or the wording of the actual questions used in the poll, several tidbits from the poll were offered during the overview.
Middendorff said support for a track was strongest in County Council District 4, an urban south county district that includes Mountlake Terrace, Mill Creek and Brier. People polled there favored the speedway by 71 percent.
Support for the track was lower in the County Council District 1, where it would be built. The poll showed 52 percent in support of the track and 32 percent against it.
Tiffanie Kilmer, a member of Snohomish County Citizens Against a Racetrack, or SCAR, said she doesn’t think support for the track is so one-sided. People are more evenly split on the issue, she said, and the wording of the poll questions might have influenced the answers.
For example, if people weren’t told that tax dollars would be needed for the speedway to be built, more might have been inclined to support the idea.
“I think that’s a huge issue,” Kilmer said. “That’s when you run into people saying, ‘Hold on a minute.’”
“I probably wouldn’t be active in SCAR if it weren’t for the public financing,” she added.
Middendorff of Moore Information said voters were not asked if they were willing to pay for the project.
On the price tag of the survey itself, Knutson could not say how much the poll cost the pro-NASCAR group. Middendorff declined to say how much her company was paid for its work.
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
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