Tuesday’s primary results, including the shocker victory in Delaware’s Republican Senate primary by conservative Christine O’Donnell over the GOP’s anointed pick, Rep. Michael Castle – an anti-gun “moderate” that many believe is a Republican In Name Only (RINO) – have the so-called “experts” in fits.
What’s this got to do with Washington State? Hang on, we’ll get to that.
One will hear much about “conventional wisdom” over the next several days, an indication that “conventional” may translate to parochial elitism, and there’s not much “wisdom” in that. To wit: Following O’Donnell’s smashing victory Tuesday, the Washington Post quoted a GOP strategist named Mike Murphy and a former GOP congressman-turned-lobbyist Vin Weber. Murphy thinks the O’Donnell win is “straight out of Harry Reid’s dream journal.” Weber believes “it may well cost us the Delaware Senate seat.”
“The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.”—Edmund Burke
The conventional wisdom was that Castle could win in Delaware, and help tilt the Senate to the Republicans. He would not be helpful on a gun vote, but he would provide the GOP with a warm body to fill a seat, allowing Republicans to run the Senate. Now pundits and Republican insiders are publicly giving up hope and abandoning Delaware, and hopes for a GOP takeover.
Note to the Republican Party: With loser attitudes like that – coupled with the disclosure that the GOP will not spend a penny to help O’Donnell’s campaign – maybe gun owners across the country (and especially in Delaware) will end up sitting this one out, which would be a tragedy for gun rights and the GOP. The Republican hierarchy needs gun owner turnout, and they occasionally do their best to discourage it when guys like party chairman Michael Steele say remarkably stupid things like this: “Society should draw lines. What do you need an assault weapon for, if you're going hunting? That’s overkill. But I don’t think that means you go to a total ban for those who want to use (a) gun for skeet shooting or hunting or things like that…”
Gun owners, and especially gun rights activists, are “Can Do” people for whom defeat and surrender are not options. Republican Party leaders and “strategists” could learn plenty from the gun rights movement and at least one of its leaders, Bellevue’s Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the grassroots Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation. He’s been on the forefront of legal actions that have led to victories in New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle and most recently in the U.S. Supreme Court with the landmark McDonald v. City of Chicago ruling that incorporated the Second Amendment to the states through the 14th Amendment.
He’s retained Alan Gura, the Virginia-based attorney who has argued both recent winning Second Amendment cases before the high court while others sat back and watched. Since the McDonald victory, “the two Alans” have filed federal lawsuits in North Carolina, New York and Maryland, and they have their eyes on other targets.
Are “The Two Alans” quitters? Are they losers? If they were quitters, they would stay out of court. If they are losers, it hasn’t shown up so far.
Gottlieb is no slouch when it comes to sharing victories. In the Chicago case, he teamed up with the Illinois State Rifle Association. In North Carolina, SAF is working with Grass Roots North Carolina. In Maryland, he’s publicly recognized the Maryland Shall Issue group as an “honorary plaintiff” in the SAF lawsuit there, which this columnn discussed here. In New York, he’s publicly recognized financial support from the Shooters Committee On Political Education, and Long Island Firearms. He is particularly pleased about cases in which SAF has teamed up with the National Rifle Association, and his press releases have consistently recognized all of these cooperative efforts.
"A King County Superior Court judge has ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association, striking down a ban on guns in city parks because it violates Washington State’s long-standing preemption statute…SAF and NRA were joined in the lawsuit by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the Washington Arms Collectors and five individual plaintiffs."—SAF press release
The Gottlieb strategy is to not close the door on people who “just might” contribute to that prized “big picture victory.” One cannot win if one throws in the towel or shuts the door on legal or political allies, and the legions of people they represent.
This is where GOP strategists seem to be stepping on their tongues if not falling on their swords, and they’re not going to be doing themselves or their party any favors if they alienate people whose votes they desperately need, or simply write them and their candidates off. If they stay at home on election day, discouraged by what essentially is abandonment, then of course Delaware’s race will be a loss.
And that brings us around to Washington State. Republican Dino Rossi is waging a tough campaign to unseat anti-gun three-term incumbent Patty Murray, the Democrat “mom in tennis shoes.” Most polls have them in a dead heat or with Rossi slightly ahead, though the new Elway poll has Murray ahead. Democrats have started attacking Rossi for his business dealings. Down in Southwest Washington’s Third District, pro-gun Republican Jaime Herrera has a good shot at winning that open race, and up in the Second District, pro-gunner John Koster has a chance to topple Democrat Rick Larsen. On the eastside, Rep. Dave Reichert (this columnist has personally shot with Reichert, the former Sheriff of King County) is facing a tough challenge from Democrat hopeful Suzan DelBene.
“State Rep. Jaime Herrera has won the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, which says the Camas Republican's "solid pro-gun voting record" in the Washington Legislature and her commitment to preserving Second Amendment rights has earned her an "A" rating from its Political Victory Fund...”—Vancouver Columbian
Yet the Seattle Times is reporting that the National Republican Congressional Committee hasn’t reserved any television ad time in the Seattle market, while the Democrats have already reserved $1 million of ad time.
There is one other race – a non-partisan one but extremely important to gun owners – and that is for the State Supreme Court. Justice Richard Sanders, who wrote the brilliant majority opinion in State v. Sieyes earlier this year that recognized the Second Amendment applies to the states, even before the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic ruling on SAF’s McDonald case, is facing a serious (and nasty) challenge. The GOP will understandably stay out of this one, but gun owners shouldn’t. This column wrote earlier about Sanders here. Earlier, this column discussed the importance of having the right judges on the bench.
"I stand up for the people who come to court," said Sanders, 65, a libertarian who defies easy labels. He appeals to a mix of criminal-defense attorneys, gun-ownership proponents, property-rights advocates, anti-abortion supporters and personal-injury attorneys.—
Gun owners will not want to “sit this one out” despite the apparent loser attitude of some strategists. National and local elections in November could have a direct bearing on gun rights despite two significant Supreme Court rulings. One more vacancy on the high court could tilt the philosophical balance, and gun owners probably cannot afford another rubber stamp for the Obama White House like Democrats gave Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
For more insight on the significance of Democrat control on Capitol Hill, read my book with Alan Gottlieb, These Dogs Don’t Hunt: The Democrats’ War on Guns.
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Washington State Gun Rights and Responsibilities
Comments
I often use the term RINO in part because my representative is one. But it really is not accurate. There really are two wings of the republican party; one is conservative (Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley, etc), and the other moderate to liberal (all of the Rockefellers, all of the Bushes, both of Maine's Senators, John McCain). Lately we have seen the moderate/liberal wing try to push back the gains the conservative's made under Reagan through the programs of 12 years under both of the Bush presidencies.
In short, you can only over simplify whats going on and get yourself in deep water if you try to say that Conservative equals Republican. It just isn't true and never has been.
On Richard Sanders: I understand that this is essentially a single-issue column, but one shouldn't always vote that way. Sanders is pro-gun rights, sure; but he is also bizarrely - indeed, dangerously - pro-criminal. I have a really hard time with that and I would think a lot of pro-gun folks would too, given how hard we have to work to distinguish between legal gun ownership and "gun crime" used to justify restrictions on gun ownership. He's scary and, frankly, an embarrassment as a public official when compared to someone like Dave Reichert.
Anyone left or right of Ron Paul is a threat to what our founders laid out in the framework to this 'once' great nation.
Most of you are simple aiding and abetting to the slow decline of this once great country.
To paraphrase Sylvester the Cat, "I find the actions of the official Republican Campaign Finance Committees to be 'Dethspicable'". They seem to be run by "(Norman) Rockefeller" Republicans who seem more in league with the Democrats than with the Goldwater/Reagan wing of the party.
Re: Sanders and his supposedly "dangerous" libertarian leanings expressed in his decisions, He comes off better than his opponant in all categories.
No ad time purchased huh?
Well that can mean only one thing and that thing is that those who are in charge of that party, are owned by outside forces. Hmmmmm, I wonder who those forces could be, since everything they do tends to benefit the Democrat socialists....?
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