Harry Reid: No Endorsement
After careful consideration, the NRA-PVF announced today that it will not be endorsing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for re-election in the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Nevada.
They were serious about this Kagan and Sotomayor stuff.
August 27th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Good.
August 27th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Maybe GOA will endorse Reid now?
August 27th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Wow, so a PAC decided not to throw its money and endorsement on a politician going into his re-election with a double digit poll deficit? Color me “surprised.”
August 27th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
And the people who bitched that the NRA might endorse reid will still bitch about the NRA.
The people look for ANYTHING to talk shit about the NRA.
August 27th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
But the NRA did effectively “endorse” him, or at least made people believe it did. Officially, it’s been sitting on the fence, but had a very nice write-up about Harry in American Rifleman. Now that he’s got a solid lead with their implicit backing, NRA can officially say that no, we are not endorsing him. Nice way to eat your cake and have it, too. They throw a bone to Harry and now to the tea nuts. Clever. I can’t decide if I’m more disgusted or amazed.
August 27th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
Shawn,
It’s not like we have to look very hard.
August 27th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
I always loved the NRA, but their supports of democrats has turned me away from them. Until they help us take back our country, I will not support them.
August 27th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
kc, I think your comment is just wrong. It is not the NRA’s job to be pro-Republican or pro-Democrat but pro-Gun Owner. Pay attention to the make up of the NRA and you will realize that we’ve had a lot of Democrat members and many Democrat office holders as Directors.
And that’s the way it should be. NRA’s interests should not be partisan. That the Democrat party made them partisan issues for awhile is not an excuse.
August 27th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Now I’m all confused, at first I was going to agree with Uncle and also with Shawn.
But then I read TexMax.
But I think at least Kagan came after their “endorsement” of Reid, so maybe that made them change their minds.
Either way, I don’t think it matters much.
There are so many other things that 2A people are voting on this year that the NRA’s endorsement won’t change many minds.
August 27th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
When Reid loses to Angle, but the Senate stays under Democrat control, I look for new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to revive interest among US citizens in the 2nd Amendment.
Because while old Harry voted pro-guns but Democrat everything else, new Chuck is as anti-gun as they come. Hopefully his demagoguery will be short lived, ending after the 2012 election.
August 27th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Senate is switching sides, mikee, mark my words. November 2010 will forever after be the definition of ‘landslide’. Pre-election polls always overpredict 10% in the democrats favor.
Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Florida, Kentucky, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania are all guaranteed Republican wins.
California, Hawaii, Indiana, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin will be “unexpected” Republican wins. The only open seats staying democratic will be Maryland and New York.
August 27th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
I’m hoping you are right, dusty, but I live in Colorado and “guarantee” is a pretty strong word.
August 27th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
Same for Illinois.
August 27th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
It’s over. Fun to watch the dust-ups at the end, but it’s over.
August 27th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Harry is the poster boy for term limits.
August 27th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
Dusty, I have to agree. I have watched the estimated senate seat losses go from 6 to 15 in a month. This election is about to be the largest political upset since the end of the Civil War.
August 28th, 2010 at 12:26 am
Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched. Several Commie States were granted “Waivers” by the DOJ, thus preventing them from being punished for failure to get Absentees Ballots to the U.S. Military people overseas and back in time to be counted, even though they had YEARS to make it so. Can you say 14th Amendment Violation? But the same DOJ says its okay for the Black Panthers to keep Citizens from Voting…
August 28th, 2010 at 1:59 am
I can’t believe that people would vote on a single issue – gun rights – to the extent of sending back Harry Reid back to Washington. The man has been an obstructionist to all things conservative, which I thought was the platform of most gun owners. Robert above is right in saying that he’s the poster boy for making term limits.
As a gun owner myself, I simply cannot understand the point of sending Reid back for yet another term.
August 28th, 2010 at 5:58 am
You think the cards and letters woke ’em up?
Or the renewals dropping off?
My little gun club, myself, and my network of shooters have not seen jack from the NRA.
Yeah, I know, it’s all about me..right?
If we had applied the same monies locally that we sent to the NRA we would have won a lot more local fights in Sacramento.
August 28th, 2010 at 6:16 am
I once liked that term, but it’s been so thoroughly hijacked by big-government interventionist jeezo-nazis that I feel awkward using it anymore.
August 28th, 2010 at 9:25 am
Skipelec …. check out CalGuns.net.
If you are looking for a model of a successful state-focused gun rights group, check out GeorgiaCarry.Org and what they’ve done in a very little bit of time.
Why couldn’t the NRA do what GCO did?
August 28th, 2010 at 10:22 am
Good!
Yet we still have all the “3pers” pissing and moaning about the NRA. On their behalf I’ll send Wayne and Chris a donation on Monday.
August 28th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
“After careful consideration”?
Are they serious?
Just look at SCOTUS – what is to carefully consider?
Now do the right thing and endorse Angle and try to get her elected.
Why is LaPierre reminding me a lot of Tom Delay these days?
August 28th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
That’s right JD. The NRA has a pretty sordid history of giving in to many things and compromising on the original ASSualt Weapons Ban among other things.
Note also that their communication is very one way and offers little in the way of member contribution via forums, etc.
August 28th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
@Mike From Philly
Don’t forget about Virginia’s VCDL.org!
August 28th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
VCDL is awesome and was the inspiration for GCO. Philip Van Cleave is a hero.
If the NRA was serious about gun rights, they’d fire LaPierre and put in Van Cleave.
August 28th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
I see a lot of sneering at the NRA and the reality is that they’ve taken positions on things that I wish they didn’t.
But the sneering is ignoring the fact that they have been very effective over the years. Very effective.
Sneering and posturing does not get things done in Washington and pretending otherwise is not wise.
August 29th, 2010 at 12:25 am
Chuck Says:
August 28th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
That’s right JD. The NRA has a pretty sordid history of giving in to many things and compromising on the original ASSualt Weapons Ban among other things.
The NRA defends my right to own a AR or any other semi-auto, have you read any of their monthly publications in the last 10 years or listened to NRA news lately? doesn’t look like it.
I own many AR’s and the hi-cap mags to go with em’ and the NRA supports and defends citizens constitutional right to do so.
You people and your anti-NRA garbage are getting really old.
August 29th, 2010 at 7:27 am
Chuck,
That NRA compromise on the AWB saved us. Once they saw the writing on the wall with that bill, they worked hard to get the “permanent” part replaced with the 10 year sunset. I would argue that was an effective compromise and has done more to ensure another ban will not be forthcoming. Likely never now given Heller but that wasn’t the case prior to 2008 when gun control advocates and Obama himself during the campaign promised to reinstate it.
The sunset of the ban has done more to disprove gun controllers “theories” about gun restrictions since it served as a wonderful test case of before and after.
How was this sordid? I call it working within political realities.
August 29th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Good point, Matt.