Pro-gun Republican wins vacated Democrat seat in Connecticut

A political theme being advanced by “progressives,” that pro-gun support is going to cost politicians their seats, got a harsh reality check Tuesday when Republican Samuel Belsito captured the Connecticut State Legislature’s 53rd House District. The special election, held to replace Democrat representative Bryan Hurlburt, who resigned to take a job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, marks the first time a Republican has won the district in 40 years, The Journal Inquirer reported.

For those gauging the impact of the gun issue, Belsito “said he would have voted against the recent gun control legislation.” Importantly, his opponent, Democrat Anthony Horn, felt the same way.

"I would have voted 'no','' Horn told The Hartford Courant, adding "Even though they say it is just registration, I don't think that's the end of it.

"Every day I was out knocking on doors, I would get at least one person who was really ticked off about the gun bill,” he recalled. “There were an awful lot of people, including Democrats, who are really ticked off about the gun bill -- and the budget.''

That is significant, particularly in Connecticut, where draconian measures were enacted in the wake of Newtown, and where Democrat Gov. Dannell P. Malloy has made “gun control” a defining platform of his administration, one he’s been vocal about extending to the national level. Yet Belsito and Horn were competing for the gun owner vote, not for the citizen disarmament faction.

Anti-gun Democrats and their media supporters have tried to convince themselves and anyone who will listen that gun rights pose a losing issue for politicians, holding up the special election win of Michael Bloomberg-backed Robin Kelly in April as “a victory for gun control advocates.” Such an assessment reflects more on a Chicago-area district that always supported such measures anyway, with $2 million thrown in just to seal the deal by the New York Mayor’s ironically-named Independence USA PAC.

That Bloomberg is now focusing his attention and fortune on defeating Democrats who voted against gun bills is indicative of the man’s fixation more than any true political demand, wishful thinking and AstroTurf endeavors notwithstanding. The Belsito/Horn race was significantly more relevant than Kelly’s predetermined outcome, and it may be a sign of things to come that will hearten activist gun owners and help waffling politicians on both sides of the aisle make up their minds -- if not out of principle then out of primal survival instinct.

The "compromises" officeholders and seekers are being told they need to make with rights that aren't theirs to bargain with appear more and more to be based on a myth created by anti-gunners relying on media amplification to give their bluff the appearance of substance.

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