for's press secretary for a month, resigning in protest the same day president ford pardoned richard nixon. he was 87 years old. welcome to "washington journal." those are pictures from yesterday of the cherry blossoms. as you can see, lots of tourists and traffic and cherry blossoms here this good friday, april 2, 2010. as mentioned at the top of the show we will talk about the new unemployment figures with greg roberts from market watch.

-- greg robb. today's jobs report is expected to show gains. it would be only the second monthly jobs gain seen since december of 2007. president barack obama will talk about the success of his economic stimulus program today during a visit to a north carolina company that has benefited from stimulus creance. the president is flying down about 9:30 a.m. the numbers come out at 8:30 a.m. he may be making a statement from the white house and if so we will take it live. here is another economic story on the front page of "the new york times" this morning. concern is mounting in

government and among consumer advocates that the debtors are not always getting a fair shake in these cases. debt collectors say they are being forced --

that is an "the new york times" this morning. from "the wall street journal" here is the obituary --

well, as washington journal the worst know all sorts of poles are always coming out and we often show them to you. this poll that just came out it's a little bit different but we want to talk about it this morning. this is about sports fans and party identity. joining us on the phone is the senior vice president of the national media company. what was this poll about? guest: good morning. this is actually our analysis of a syndicated consumer survey conducted by a company called star research. -- scarborough research. we are in the business of buying media for republican candidates. looking for ways to reach them, so this is our analysis of how

voters consumes sports. host: if you are a republican candidate where the one to put your advertising dollars? guest: one of the things we learned by analyzing the data is that over all democrats watch more television than republicans. so, one of the few cases where republicans are watching more television is sports. so we look at the party identification and the propensity to turn out among sports fans. and if you look at that, most republicans and highest turnout exports are golf and college football. host: why is that? guest: it is hard to say. part of it because the audiences for golf and college football

are more upscale and more male, a demographic that looks more republican. host: well, we want to hear from our viewers. our guest will be on the line for a little while so he can react to some of his comments. we want to get your reaction about a new poll and -- about sports fans and party identity. i want to show you this chart that came out with the poll. mr. feltus, 31,000 people were polled. host: -- guest: actually 220,000 adults. we looked specifically at the markets for the ncaa elite 8, and that subset, there were about 30,000 people.

host: but over 200,000 in the entire pool? guest: very large sample poll and we need a large sample because we look at these on a market by market basis and there are market by market differences. host: so, let us look at some of these figures. if you are a democratic candidate, would you advertise on the wnba? guest: yes, the audience is smaller but more of the voters that are watching and likely to be democrats and they do turn out to be higher than average rate. tennis is also another sport that skews the democratic, both of men's and women's tennis. host: and looks like pretty high turnout, too. guest: pretty high turnout. an upscale audience also.

and also nba. host: what is the turnout? guest: it is above average. it is not to say there are not democrats who are watching college football or pga or nascar, but if you are putting together a media plan you are just looking for efficiencies. so this is the kind of analysis to try to find those deficiencies. h. card the nascar group and sacco -- soccer minds -- host: nascar and soccer mom spirit is it true nascar is a republican? guest: they are republican but they did not turn out at a -- at as high rate as football, golf, or in the bits, but they are

republican. and if you look at the charts, sitting right there next to nascar is, for example, pro bowl writing -- bull-riding and rodeao is in the same space. host: why do those tend to be repupublican? guest: we don't exactly know why. in fact, in our business, we probably don't really care why, except that it does. it is just my gut looking at it is you are looking exports that have a largely southern -- looking at sports that have largely southern or southwestern appeal. host: why would the nba's you very democratic but college basketball's use high turnout republican? guest: that is a difference that we see across several sports. the professional sport tends to

be more democratic and the college sports tend to be more republican. again, i think that is an artifact of education and social economic status. host: the olympics? guest: it is interesting. you don't have an opportunity to advertise in the olympics every election cycle. the interesting thing about the olympics is it is one of the few sports where the ratio of men to women as fans are fairly balanced. most other sports skew mail. -- male. host: why would that trend republican? guest: i really can't answer that. i think it has to do with education, and come, socio-

economic status. host: let us hear from some of our viewers and we will ask more questions. george in maine, democrat, what do you think about sports fans and party identity? caller: i am a democrat and i love my basketball and my football and my baseball. the red sox and the celtics and the patriot spirited after that, i kind of like nascar. host: george. when martha coakley made the mistake about curt schilling planning for the yankees, did that affect your vote? as a red sox fan question on caller: -- as a red sox fan? caller: i know how red sox fans feel about me give fans -- otherwise we would have the

greatest rivalries in baseball. host: stopped -- scott from jacksonville, florida. guest: i would think more republicans would be boston red sox fans than democrats being more new york yankees fans simply because of the demographics of new york, more of a liberal state and blue state. i'm a big fan of college football and the golf -- i am a republican. host: are you a regular voter? guest: yes, every year i do. host: major league baseball, this kind of fits right in the middle but high turnout. guest: it turns out that

ballston, if you measure it by intensity of fan interest, boston is the no. 1 baseball market in the country. and you see a lot of market by market variation in interest in sports. the boston and providence, rhode island, red sox markets, -- then you have st. louis, philadelphia. host: why on your chart have -- does major-league baseball have a really small circle as opposed to the olympics or college football or nfl? guest: our circles are based on percentage of american to say they are very interested in the sport. major league baseball is one of the top tier sports. 14% -- ballston, 41% said they are very interested.

host: if you are a political consulting would say to candidate x or y, a democrat or republican, as advertise on boston red sox television? guest: yes, i did that for mitt romney during his campaign. the problem is, as a media buyer, popular sports are expensive on cost per thousand basis. host: what about sports web sites? is that a place for political ads? guest: yes, definitely. when i talk about advertising, i just don't mean on broadcast television, but cable television, radio, and the internet. host: missouri, democrats. guest: i happen to disagree with

the caller, mainly because i feel it has mainly to do with and become versus educational level. democrats probably have a higher rate of education. republicans, however, probably have more of a higher income based upon the stock market's and ceo type where they happen to give out a lot of free b type things like a box seats and what have you. the families, friends, and also politicians as well. host: what is your favorite sport? guest: mainly football -- well, baseball and hockey as well as i would say probably in addition to that, mainly basketball. host: all right.

mr. feltus, we have not talk about hockey. if you are an and h l fan, should republican or democrat advertise? guest: republican. host: why? guest: again, it varies a lot from market to market. a but the nhl audience is more republican. it may be that there are fewer minorities who are interested in the nhl. again, it varies a locked. if you look at -- it varies a lot. but if you look at hockey nationally, only 5% of americans say they are very interested in hockey. and the top markets there are pittsburgh and detroit. and, of course, there is some seasonal variation on the data depending on the success of teams in the market. host: one of the biggest circles on your chart -- if we could

pull out in little bit and show them the whole chart. i should explain this. over here is, and this is in the republican democratic line. this line, this access, is voter turnout. this is high voter turnout, low voter turnout, very republican, very democratic. so, the nfl comes pretty close actually to the whole center of the thing, doesn't it? guest: as the audience for a sport or frankly anything gets larger, it tends to be more in the middle. it is in at the smaller sports where you can more precisely target a certain odor type. host: college football seems to be an anomaly. guest: it is. part of that is because the most intense college football fans tend to be in a republican kinds

of markets. especially down south. so, the top college football market is, not surprisingly, birmingham, alabama -- the crimson tide. and number two, knoxville, tennessee, for the volunteers. oklahoma city, columbus, ohio, and then jacksonville, florida, for the gators. host: garden city, kansas, michael, hi. hello? kansas, are you on the line? we are going to move on to albuquerque, new mexico. john, democrats. guest: i wonder what happened in kansas? anyway. i am wondering where you took all of the polling data because, because i would think the part of the country, if you are in oregon or california and you might find college football would be close to the center line between democrats and

republicans but -- the next poll, i would like you to see a short two-page intelligence quotient because i long had a theory that democrats are generally much smarter than republican. if i look at this poll right here, bull riding, nascar, except for college football or above is, those are sports predominately all white people. i am wondering whether -- when we would have a black nascar driver. we have a spanish-american war a mexican-american nascar driver, and the black guy that does prognosticating. host: is this a white, male type republican thing? that we are seeing? guest: yes, there is a white male republican thing going on

but on a cnn a couple of nights ago we were talking about the chart and james carville was on the show and he picked out nascar and pro bull riding as one of his favorite sports. he is a democrat. we are just looking at tendencies. not saying all fans of nascar or the nfl are democrats. host: should republicans then advertise on pro wrestling? guest: no. in fact, democrats should not advertise on pro wrestling. the audience for pro wrestling skews democratic, but the thing about pro wrestling is it is a very low turnout fan base. so, you are not likely -- no

actual voters on crow rate -- wrestling. host: major league soccer? guest: major league soccer has a large hispanic fan base as hispanics historically have a very low turnout rate. so, like wrestling, pro soccer is very low turnout. host: men's and women's tennis has the same size circle as a monster trucks and extreme action. guest: as republican i am dismayed that tennis skews democratic. the fan base in tennis has been fairly stagnant for the last several years because there haven't -- with the exception of serena and vsnus williams, there have not been very many

american tennis stars. caller: i would like to ask, i noticed on his chart that he has everybody but he does not have the indy racing league and i'm a big indy fan. -- there is not enough space for all of the bubbles. but the irl sits right there with nascar. host: so it tends republican. guest: yes. host: you have another chart, down on this, you have the indy racing league, and now of course i can't find it. indy car series, the turnout. explain this. guest: we have a bar chart that ranks all the sports as far as their propensity to turn out. 50% of americans report that they always vote in all

elections. a bit of over reporting. but 50% of the country, -- it is the interesting thing. if you look at all of the sports, people who are sports fans tend to vote at a higher rate than people who aren't sports fans. so, for example, high school -- people interested in high school sports, most people with families with children, 61% of them say they always vote in a statewide elections. host: so, what about advertising at high-school sporting arenas? guest: that is one thing that most campaigns don't think about -- advertising to the high school audience. but, in fact, there are a number of ways to reach that audience.

simple things like buying an ad in the programs. or putting up a sign at the events. host: when it comes to high school, does it tend republican or democrat? guest: it is close to the middle, but it is like other sports, it is republican and it is very high turnout. host: morgantown, west virginia. caller: goal mouth and ears, for tonight. first, a real quick comment. a couple of callers on the democrat line -- and i come -- this is a democrat state. he said that he finds the democrats are generally smarter than republicans. i think that kind of arrogance is going to cost the democrat party dearly in november. but getting back to sports -- one of the observations,

politicians have been throwing out the first ball at the world series. i remember president reagan. i think he was the first president to go to the daytona 500. i think it was just to whip up his base. i do not know how many additional votes he got from that. i noticed that president obama the other day one of the major networks, asking who he liked in the major for -- and while he did not nail it down he spoke highly of west virginia and i believe matt lauer said i find it interesting that the only state you did not carry -- thinking if they get past due, they would go all the way. host: you looked at the final eight? guest: i looked at the final eight and three of the four games, the team that had the most republican fan base in their local market won the games.

so, based on that -- don't upset the caller from west virginia -- based on that, the final will be butler against west virginia. and it the most republican team wins, that would be butler. host: what should people take from this? is there anything we can extrapolate knowledge-wise? guest: this kind of polling is more interesting than most of the political polling that gets done. and i think one of the key things to remember is that most americans who votes don't spend a lot of time thinking about politics. they probably spend more time thinking about

lose. host: tom, pennsylvania, republican line. i had to call again referring back to the bigoted democrat who suggested that all democrats were more intelligent and republicans were bigots. i have to ask the question, why does this subject in our "post racial world" -- i don't really know anybody as a republican who is a bigot and yet the democrats continue to bring up the subject and suggest any time they don't get what they want, that the republicans are bigoted. h. -- host: lakehurst, new jersey. democrats. sports fans and party id. caller: excuse me? host: sports fan and party id. what do you think? caller: i was fascinated when i first saw the poll on cnn the other night. i am 75 years old and i had about a 25-year is set -- theory

about new york city sports, where i am originally from. i always contended that the yankees were more republican -- i was originally a brooklyn dodger fan and now a new york mets fan. and my theory goes like this. the yankees are always a wealthier team, the always have more money. they were owned by cbs at one time in their history. and they charge higher prices, so they attracted a wall street kind of crowd. i would love to hear mr. feltus'comments on that. guest: i wish i had at the profile of every team committed to memory, but i don't. i have not looked at the new york yankees versus the mets, for example. york yankees versus the mets, for example.