DEL MAR -- Pass through any entrance to the San Diego County Fair this year and you're bound to spot at least two employees passing out neon green cards seeking support to "Save the Del Mar Fairgrounds."

The employees -- called fair ambassadors -- are state workers distributing information that, at first glance, seems to take issue with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to sell the seaside Del Mar property to help balance the state budget.

The green cards invite fair patrons to visit savethedmfairgrounds.com and urge them to contact the governor's office and state legislators to voice their opinions on the idea. Card receptacle boxes and cans are everywhere on the fairgrounds and visitors can also turn the cards in to any red-shirted fair employee.

Fairgrounds General Manager Tim Fennell said Thursday there's nothing wrong with state workers seeking opinions on the issue.

"Our position is that this is an information-gathering effort, not propaganda," he said. "We want to gather fairgoers' opinions so we can pass them along to the people at the state."

Fairgoers' reactions to the governor's proposal have been strong, fair workers and others said last week.

"I'd say 95 percent are opposed to the sale -- and the other 5 percent are out-of-towners," said Jay Trussel of Carlsbad, the lead ambassador at the fairgrounds who oversees employees staffing the gates.

"He doesn't care up there," fair visitor Barbara Montalvo of La Mesa said about Schwarzenegger's plan. "We've been coming to the fair for 40 years and he just doesn't know how much these fairgrounds mean to us here."

Montalvo dismissed the fact that state officials have said they would require the new owners to keep the property as a fairgrounds and horse track.

"I don't believe it," Montalvo said. "(The governor) can say whatever he wants."

Though Fennell said employees are simply seeking feedback on the proposal, he has already made his opinion known.

Fennell has said that no state money was used to buy the grounds or build any of the buildings, that there are zero tax dollars used to run the fairgrounds, and that year-round activities there contribute an estimated $400 million to the economy and create the equivalent of 5,000 full-time jobs in San Diego County.

Fennell also points out that, in the event of an emergency, the fairgrounds is a designated evacuation site.

"We can't kid ourselves; we are going to have more wildfires," Fennell said. "What's going to happen if we aren't here to the 2,000 people and 2,600 horses plus hundreds of cats, dogs and even a zorse -- have zebra, half donkey -- that we helped save during the 2003 and 2007 fires?"

Fair worker Brian Hinck of Scripps Ranch, who staffs the front gates for several hours each day, said last week that some people aren't aware of the proposed sale until they see his display. He said some are shocked that the land could be sold and most are opposed.

Hinck said the few people who support the sale express the opinion that "the state should be run like a business and that it's better to sell the fairgrounds than shut down schools."

"If the fair were in trouble financially that would be one thing," Trussel added. "It's not -- we are profitable -- and they are just looking at it very short-term and that's why we are reacting."

At this year's fair, amid the cotton candy and carnival rides, the controversy is hard to miss. Savethedmfairgrounds.com bumper stickers are plastered throughout the grounds. In addition to the heavily staffed gates, virtually every exhibitor and vendor inside the fair has a stack of the cards, and they are encouraged to ask visitors to get involved.

It may be the visceral argument that wins in the end.

"It's part of life here in San Diego," said Pam Urioste of Rancho Penasquitos. "All the different events -- the fair, the horse racing, holiday lights, home and garden shows -- they are a part of San Diego's very identity."