Pro-Gun Candidates Win Most Key Races
11/7/2002
http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/features/reader/0,2061,555114,00.html
Feature Story
by Bob Curley
Gun-violence prevention advocates had a rough time on Election Day, as many key races swung in favor of candidates considered pro-gun. And while advocates may take solace in the fact that the gun issue probably didn't impact the results one way or the other, the national politics of gun control change completely now that the Republican Party controls both houses of Congress, as well as the White House.
Gun violence issues rarely played a prominent role in the 2002 elections, as Democrats tended to shy away from the issue in the belief that gun control had hurt Al Gore in the 2000 presidential campaign. Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said this risk-aversive strategy may have cost some candidates votes.
"Support for gun safety is tremendously effective when handled properly," he said "No one is suggesting campaigning on gun control would have led to victory for either Senate candidate in South Dakota, for example. But it was foolish for candidates to buy wholesale the gun lobby's spin after Election 2000. Losing candidates should take a good look at progressive issues -- like gun control -- that they abandoned in their campaigns, and how that decision affected mobilization of their base."
Joe Sudbay, policy director at the Violence Policy Center (VPC), agreed. "The Democrats couldn't turn out their base because they didn't give them anything," said Sudbay.
"The gun lobby did not win this election," said Michael D. Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "But the net result is that its operatives now control Congress."
The Washington, D.C.-area sniper case served to boost the gun issue to prominence in the last month of the campaign, particularly in Maryland and Virginia. In Maryland, Democratic candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend used the sniper shootings as a springboard for questioning Republican Robert Ehrlich's positions on gun control. But in a come-from-behind upset, Ehrlich won the governor's seat.
"As soon as Ehrlich got out ahead of himself on the gun issue by questioning the ballistic-fingerprinting system in Maryland, he started reeling himself back in," said Matt Bennett, director of public affairs for Americans for Gun Safety (AGS). "Then, when the sniper attacks started, he moved even more to the center ... He did a good job of muddying the waters between him and Townsend."
The Townsend-Ehrlich race was one of the key contests identified by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in its annual "Dangerous Dozen" list. There was one very notable victory for gun-violence prevention advocates: In the Pennsylvania governor's race, Ed Rendell, who was blasted by the National Rifle Association (NRA) for his gun-control work as mayor of Philadelphia, nonetheless won handily over Republican Mike Fisher, the state's attorney general.
Also, in the controversial New Jersey Senate race, former Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg -- a last-minute replacement for disgraced Sen. Robert Torricelli -- prevailed over challenger Dough Forrester in a race that did include some discussion of gun-control issues.
The NRA also threw its weight behind challenger John Thune in the South Dakota Senate race, but incumbent Democrat Tim Johnson managed to hold on to his seat there.
Other than that, however, the news was mostly bad for supporters of gun control. In Colorado, Sen. Wayne Allard (R) defeated challenger and U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland in a hard-fought contest. And in Minnesota, Republican Norm Coleman defeated Walter Mondale in the race for the seat of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone. Both the NRA and Brady had pegged the Minnesota Senate race as critical.
In Oregon, incumbent Republican Sen. Gordon Smith cruised to an easy victory over challenger and secretary of state Bill Bradbury. And Missouri Sen. Jean Carnahan couldn't hold onto her late husband's Senate seat, losing an extremely tight race to former Rep. Jim Talent.
The NRA targeted the Georgia Senate race, as well, where decorated war veteran Max Cleland was ousted by Republican Saxby Chambliss. Ironically, the Georgia contest seemed to turn on the issue of homeland security, even though Cleland had strong defense credentials, having been maimed in combat in Vietnam.
Dingell, Others Prevail in House
In the House of Representatives, pro-gun candidates also fared well. In the battle to claim the House seat vacated by long-term incumbent Marge Roukema (R-N.J.), Republican Scott Garrett beat Democrat Anne Sumers. In Michigan, Million Mom March activist David Fink was defeated by incumbent Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich.). John Dingell (D-Mich.), known as perhaps the most prominent pro-gun Democrat in Congress, easily swept aside a pair of challengers to keep his seat.
However, the Brady-supported Dennis Cardoza did defeat Republican Dick Monteith to claim Gary Condit's former House district in California.
Two other governor's races provided mixed results on the gun issue. Calif. Gov. Gray Davis, who has approved a number of gun-control bills during his tenure, was reelected over Republican challenger Bill Simon. But Florida Gov. Jeb Bush defeated Democrat Bill McBride by a 56-43 percent margin in another race that gun-violence prevention groups would have liked to turn out differently.
Because the gun issue played so little role in the campaigns, it's hard to blame gun-violence prevention advocates for their candidates' poor showing. In fact, neither side of the gun issue could claim total victory, even though pro-gun groups are undoubtedly happier about the overall outcome of the election.
For example, AGS' Bennett points out that of the three Democratic incumbent gubernatorial candidates who won endorsements from the NRA, two lost (Roy Barnes in South Carolina, and Jim Hodges in Georgia) and one, Donald Siegelman in Alabama, is in a dead heat with challenger Bob Reilly.
"Getting the endorsement from the NRA, which has been kind of the Holy Grail for Southern Democrats, seems to have been almost totally useless," said Bennett. "It doesn't help Democrats, although it does help Republicans in some places."
Should Lobbying Tactics Change?
VPC's Sudbay said gun-violence prevention advocates need to push their natural allies -- typically Democrats -- to be more assertive than ever on gun issues in order to provide a clearer contrast with their opponents. But Bennett said that the election results mean that both gun-violence prevention advocates and their supporters in Congress need to shift their tactics on the national level.
"The election was final confirmation that the way that the Democrats have handled gun control in the last few election cycles just doesn't work," he said. "We need to shift our attention to enforcement. Anyone who thinks we will get traditional gun-control legislation enacted in the 108th Congress is insane."
Bennett said that gun-control advocates need to expose the NRA's stated position in support of enforcement of existing gun laws as the "complete malarkey" that he believes it is, and work in a bipartisan fashion to get the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to crack down on straw purchasers and shady gun dealers.
"There are plenty of things we could do -- and that the NRA has never supported -- that can really have an impact," said Bennett.
Bennett said that Republican control of Congress will force the gun-control movement to shift towards the center if advocates expect to be effective on such bellwether issues as reauthorization of the federal assault-weapons ban, which is due to sunset next year without Congressional action. "I don't see how anyone can draw any other conclusion," he said. "We're going to be fighting rearguard battles in many areas in the House and Senate."
Sudbay called the reauthorization "the only real issue" that is likely to come up during this Congress, and said it provides an opportunity for advocates to clearly deliniate between supporters and opponents of a gun-control measure that is popular with a solid majority of Americans.
11/7/2002
http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/features/reader/0,2061,555114,00.html
Feature Story
by Bob Curley
Gun-violence prevention advocates had a rough time on Election Day, as many key races swung in favor of candidates considered pro-gun. And while advocates may take solace in the fact that the gun issue probably didn't impact the results one way or the other, the national politics of gun control change completely now that the Republican Party controls both houses of Congress, as well as the White House.
Gun violence issues rarely played a prominent role in the 2002 elections, as Democrats tended to shy away from the issue in the belief that gun control had hurt Al Gore in the 2000 presidential campaign. Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said this risk-aversive strategy may have cost some candidates votes.
"Support for gun safety is tremendously effective when handled properly," he said "No one is suggesting campaigning on gun control would have led to victory for either Senate candidate in South Dakota, for example. But it was foolish for candidates to buy wholesale the gun lobby's spin after Election 2000. Losing candidates should take a good look at progressive issues -- like gun control -- that they abandoned in their campaigns, and how that decision affected mobilization of their base."
Joe Sudbay, policy director at the Violence Policy Center (VPC), agreed. "The Democrats couldn't turn out their base because they didn't give them anything," said Sudbay.
"The gun lobby did not win this election," said Michael D. Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "But the net result is that its operatives now control Congress."
The Washington, D.C.-area sniper case served to boost the gun issue to prominence in the last month of the campaign, particularly in Maryland and Virginia. In Maryland, Democratic candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend used the sniper shootings as a springboard for questioning Republican Robert Ehrlich's positions on gun control. But in a come-from-behind upset, Ehrlich won the governor's seat.
"As soon as Ehrlich got out ahead of himself on the gun issue by questioning the ballistic-fingerprinting system in Maryland, he started reeling himself back in," said Matt Bennett, director of public affairs for Americans for Gun Safety (AGS). "Then, when the sniper attacks started, he moved even more to the center ... He did a good job of muddying the waters between him and Townsend."
The Townsend-Ehrlich race was one of the key contests identified by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in its annual "Dangerous Dozen" list. There was one very notable victory for gun-violence prevention advocates: In the Pennsylvania governor's race, Ed Rendell, who was blasted by the National Rifle Association (NRA) for his gun-control work as mayor of Philadelphia, nonetheless won handily over Republican Mike Fisher, the state's attorney general.
Also, in the controversial New Jersey Senate race, former Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg -- a last-minute replacement for disgraced Sen. Robert Torricelli -- prevailed over challenger Dough Forrester in a race that did include some discussion of gun-control issues.
The NRA also threw its weight behind challenger John Thune in the South Dakota Senate race, but incumbent Democrat Tim Johnson managed to hold on to his seat there.
Other than that, however, the news was mostly bad for supporters of gun control. In Colorado, Sen. Wayne Allard (R) defeated challenger and U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland in a hard-fought contest. And in Minnesota, Republican Norm Coleman defeated Walter Mondale in the race for the seat of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone. Both the NRA and Brady had pegged the Minnesota Senate race as critical.
In Oregon, incumbent Republican Sen. Gordon Smith cruised to an easy victory over challenger and secretary of state Bill Bradbury. And Missouri Sen. Jean Carnahan couldn't hold onto her late husband's Senate seat, losing an extremely tight race to former Rep. Jim Talent.
The NRA targeted the Georgia Senate race, as well, where decorated war veteran Max Cleland was ousted by Republican Saxby Chambliss. Ironically, the Georgia contest seemed to turn on the issue of homeland security, even though Cleland had strong defense credentials, having been maimed in combat in Vietnam.
Dingell, Others Prevail in House
In the House of Representatives, pro-gun candidates also fared well. In the battle to claim the House seat vacated by long-term incumbent Marge Roukema (R-N.J.), Republican Scott Garrett beat Democrat Anne Sumers. In Michigan, Million Mom March activist David Fink was defeated by incumbent Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich.). John Dingell (D-Mich.), known as perhaps the most prominent pro-gun Democrat in Congress, easily swept aside a pair of challengers to keep his seat.
However, the Brady-supported Dennis Cardoza did defeat Republican Dick Monteith to claim Gary Condit's former House district in California.
Two other governor's races provided mixed results on the gun issue. Calif. Gov. Gray Davis, who has approved a number of gun-control bills during his tenure, was reelected over Republican challenger Bill Simon. But Florida Gov. Jeb Bush defeated Democrat Bill McBride by a 56-43 percent margin in another race that gun-violence prevention groups would have liked to turn out differently.
Because the gun issue played so little role in the campaigns, it's hard to blame gun-violence prevention advocates for their candidates' poor showing. In fact, neither side of the gun issue could claim total victory, even though pro-gun groups are undoubtedly happier about the overall outcome of the election.
For example, AGS' Bennett points out that of the three Democratic incumbent gubernatorial candidates who won endorsements from the NRA, two lost (Roy Barnes in South Carolina, and Jim Hodges in Georgia) and one, Donald Siegelman in Alabama, is in a dead heat with challenger Bob Reilly.
"Getting the endorsement from the NRA, which has been kind of the Holy Grail for Southern Democrats, seems to have been almost totally useless," said Bennett. "It doesn't help Democrats, although it does help Republicans in some places."
Should Lobbying Tactics Change?
VPC's Sudbay said gun-violence prevention advocates need to push their natural allies -- typically Democrats -- to be more assertive than ever on gun issues in order to provide a clearer contrast with their opponents. But Bennett said that the election results mean that both gun-violence prevention advocates and their supporters in Congress need to shift their tactics on the national level.
"The election was final confirmation that the way that the Democrats have handled gun control in the last few election cycles just doesn't work," he said. "We need to shift our attention to enforcement. Anyone who thinks we will get traditional gun-control legislation enacted in the 108th Congress is insane."
Bennett said that gun-control advocates need to expose the NRA's stated position in support of enforcement of existing gun laws as the "complete malarkey" that he believes it is, and work in a bipartisan fashion to get the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to crack down on straw purchasers and shady gun dealers.
"There are plenty of things we could do -- and that the NRA has never supported -- that can really have an impact," said Bennett.
Bennett said that Republican control of Congress will force the gun-control movement to shift towards the center if advocates expect to be effective on such bellwether issues as reauthorization of the federal assault-weapons ban, which is due to sunset next year without Congressional action. "I don't see how anyone can draw any other conclusion," he said. "We're going to be fighting rearguard battles in many areas in the House and Senate."
Sudbay called the reauthorization "the only real issue" that is likely to come up during this Congress, and said it provides an opportunity for advocates to clearly deliniate between supporters and opponents of a gun-control measure that is popular with a solid majority of Americans.
