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NRA aims at Rendell in radio ads
Josey1
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NRA aims at Rendell in radio ads
The gun lobby hopes its appeal will resonate with rural voters, swinging the primary to Bob Casey Jr.
By Matthew P. Blanchard and Thomas Fitzgerald
Inquirer Staff Writers
The National Rifle Association leaped into the Pennsylvania governor's race yesterday, launching a final-week radio campaign designed to damage the candidacy of former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell.
"This is an urgent alert for gun owners and hunters in Pennsylvania," says a male voice in the one-minute spot heard on radio stations in mostly rural areas across the state.
Over ominous music, voters hear that Rendell is a "big-city politician" who "doesn't respect your rights or values. And if he wins he won't hesitate to strip them away. Don't let him do it."
Up to now, this governor's race has been about jobs, education and health care. The candidates had left gun control on the rack - a loaded topic that could easily alienate half the state, urban or rural, if carelessly employed.
In a race where every vote counts, the NRA has dragged out Rendell's record on guns, hoping it will be just enough to swing the race to Bob Casey Jr., Rendell's Democratic opponent for the gubernatorial nomination.
The target audience is among Pennsylvania's one million gun owners, folks living in steel towns and rural counties where shotguns enjoy a cultural status somewhere below Mom, but well above apple pie.
"We need to put ourselves on a war footing," House Minority Leader William DeWeese (D., Greene) said at a recent sportsmen's rally for Casey. "Call six or eight people every day. Because it's gonna be that close."
Rendell has lost friends in the gun lobby since 1997, when, as Philadelphia mayor, he considered filing lawsuits against gun manufacturers such as Beretta and Smith & Wesson to recoup the costs of urban gun violence.
Back then, observers warned Rendell that he was killing his chances of becoming governor. And eventually he did back off, leaving his successor, John F. Street, to take up the lawsuits, which the city lost in 2000.
Now NRA leaders will hit Rendell with his gun-control record anyway.
"It's not surprising that a big-city politician like Rendell would try to mask his record," said NRA national spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. "We want to bring out the real record."
It is not the first special interest group to jump into the Democratic primary. Recently, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League endorsed Rendell and spent $170,000 on ads supporting him.
The NRA ads will run through the primary, adding to a broadcast onslaught during this final week, when each candidate has enough cash on hand to spend a combined $486,000 a day. From the NRA, expect mass mailings, telephone banks, and maybe television commercials in selected markets, Arulanandam said.
But will it matter?
The NRA claims 4.2 million members in 50 states, with Pennsylvania ranking second behind California.
But the NRA's political influence here has been up-and-down. In 1994, NRA support helped lift Rick Santorum to the U.S. Senate over incumbent Harris Wofford. In 2000, the gun lobby couldn't stop Al Gore from carrying the state.
The issue has been in the shadows this time around, but when he does discuss it, Casey rejects new gun restrictions, calling for stricter enforcement of current laws.
State Attorney General Mike Fisher, who is running unopposed for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, feels the same way.
Rendell says he, too, supports a hunter's right to hunt. He often mentions the alliance he formed with NRA president Charlton Heston in 1998 to use Philadelphia as a test city for "Operation Cease Fire," a program that diverts serious gun cases to federal court.
Rendell is pushing one gun-control measure: a "one-gun-a-month" law to limit a resident to buying one handgun every 30 days. Rifles and shotguns are exempt from the rule, as are gun dealers and collectors. The only other people who need more handguns, Rendell says, are straw buyers who deal guns to street gangs.
"My program is very pragmatic," Rendell said this week. "I don't think I'll lose votes over it."
Rendell may be right in Philadelphia, where 246 people died in gun homicides last year.
But 300 miles west, in places such as Allegheny, Beaver and Greene Counties, some folks see Rendell sledge-hammering the Liberty Bell.
"It's an infringement, a rationing of our rights," says Kim Stolfer, 47, an auto mechanic-turned-activist from McDonald, Pa.
Stolfer likes to hunt deer with a .44-caliber pistol strapped to his chest - "Dirty Harry-style" - because it's more challenging. He fears that Rendell's "pragmatic" proposal would start Pennsylvania down the slippery slope to state registration of guns.
So now, Stolfer is working in the grass roots for Firearms Owners Against Crime, a Second Amendment political action committee that just sent a pro-Casey brochure to 40,000 gun owners and sportsmen in the western half of the state.
Last week, Stolfer was happy to organize a Casey rally at a sportsmen's club in the hills outside Pittsburgh, where DeWeese appeared.
So far, statistics show gun control is not a losing issue for Rendell. Registered Democrats favored stricter controls on guns by ratios of 2 to 1 in four Keystone Polls conducted between February 2000 and October 2001.
The latest Keystone survey found that Rendell, the gun-control candidate, was actually leading Casey among people who described themselves as gun owners, 39 percent to 32 percent.
Pollster G. Terry Madonna says that's because the issue hasn't come up.
"If you don't talk about the issue, how are typical voters to know?" Madonna said.
Contact Matt Blanchard at 215-702-7814 or mblanchard@phillynews.com.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/3266111.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
The gun lobby hopes its appeal will resonate with rural voters, swinging the primary to Bob Casey Jr.
By Matthew P. Blanchard and Thomas Fitzgerald
Inquirer Staff Writers
The National Rifle Association leaped into the Pennsylvania governor's race yesterday, launching a final-week radio campaign designed to damage the candidacy of former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell.
"This is an urgent alert for gun owners and hunters in Pennsylvania," says a male voice in the one-minute spot heard on radio stations in mostly rural areas across the state.
Over ominous music, voters hear that Rendell is a "big-city politician" who "doesn't respect your rights or values. And if he wins he won't hesitate to strip them away. Don't let him do it."
Up to now, this governor's race has been about jobs, education and health care. The candidates had left gun control on the rack - a loaded topic that could easily alienate half the state, urban or rural, if carelessly employed.
In a race where every vote counts, the NRA has dragged out Rendell's record on guns, hoping it will be just enough to swing the race to Bob Casey Jr., Rendell's Democratic opponent for the gubernatorial nomination.
The target audience is among Pennsylvania's one million gun owners, folks living in steel towns and rural counties where shotguns enjoy a cultural status somewhere below Mom, but well above apple pie.
"We need to put ourselves on a war footing," House Minority Leader William DeWeese (D., Greene) said at a recent sportsmen's rally for Casey. "Call six or eight people every day. Because it's gonna be that close."
Rendell has lost friends in the gun lobby since 1997, when, as Philadelphia mayor, he considered filing lawsuits against gun manufacturers such as Beretta and Smith & Wesson to recoup the costs of urban gun violence.
Back then, observers warned Rendell that he was killing his chances of becoming governor. And eventually he did back off, leaving his successor, John F. Street, to take up the lawsuits, which the city lost in 2000.
Now NRA leaders will hit Rendell with his gun-control record anyway.
"It's not surprising that a big-city politician like Rendell would try to mask his record," said NRA national spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. "We want to bring out the real record."
It is not the first special interest group to jump into the Democratic primary. Recently, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League endorsed Rendell and spent $170,000 on ads supporting him.
The NRA ads will run through the primary, adding to a broadcast onslaught during this final week, when each candidate has enough cash on hand to spend a combined $486,000 a day. From the NRA, expect mass mailings, telephone banks, and maybe television commercials in selected markets, Arulanandam said.
But will it matter?
The NRA claims 4.2 million members in 50 states, with Pennsylvania ranking second behind California.
But the NRA's political influence here has been up-and-down. In 1994, NRA support helped lift Rick Santorum to the U.S. Senate over incumbent Harris Wofford. In 2000, the gun lobby couldn't stop Al Gore from carrying the state.
The issue has been in the shadows this time around, but when he does discuss it, Casey rejects new gun restrictions, calling for stricter enforcement of current laws.
State Attorney General Mike Fisher, who is running unopposed for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, feels the same way.
Rendell says he, too, supports a hunter's right to hunt. He often mentions the alliance he formed with NRA president Charlton Heston in 1998 to use Philadelphia as a test city for "Operation Cease Fire," a program that diverts serious gun cases to federal court.
Rendell is pushing one gun-control measure: a "one-gun-a-month" law to limit a resident to buying one handgun every 30 days. Rifles and shotguns are exempt from the rule, as are gun dealers and collectors. The only other people who need more handguns, Rendell says, are straw buyers who deal guns to street gangs.
"My program is very pragmatic," Rendell said this week. "I don't think I'll lose votes over it."
Rendell may be right in Philadelphia, where 246 people died in gun homicides last year.
But 300 miles west, in places such as Allegheny, Beaver and Greene Counties, some folks see Rendell sledge-hammering the Liberty Bell.
"It's an infringement, a rationing of our rights," says Kim Stolfer, 47, an auto mechanic-turned-activist from McDonald, Pa.
Stolfer likes to hunt deer with a .44-caliber pistol strapped to his chest - "Dirty Harry-style" - because it's more challenging. He fears that Rendell's "pragmatic" proposal would start Pennsylvania down the slippery slope to state registration of guns.
So now, Stolfer is working in the grass roots for Firearms Owners Against Crime, a Second Amendment political action committee that just sent a pro-Casey brochure to 40,000 gun owners and sportsmen in the western half of the state.
Last week, Stolfer was happy to organize a Casey rally at a sportsmen's club in the hills outside Pittsburgh, where DeWeese appeared.
So far, statistics show gun control is not a losing issue for Rendell. Registered Democrats favored stricter controls on guns by ratios of 2 to 1 in four Keystone Polls conducted between February 2000 and October 2001.
The latest Keystone survey found that Rendell, the gun-control candidate, was actually leading Casey among people who described themselves as gun owners, 39 percent to 32 percent.
Pollster G. Terry Madonna says that's because the issue hasn't come up.
"If you don't talk about the issue, how are typical voters to know?" Madonna said.
Contact Matt Blanchard at 215-702-7814 or mblanchard@phillynews.com.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/3266111.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
..And the reason Gore won the state of PA in 2000 was because there was ballot box stuffing going on in Philadelphia. The city of Philadelphia had over 99% voter turn out in the 2000 election.
Happiness is a warm gun
If anyone has any concrete information on ballot box stuffing, or other "irregularities" I need that information. I live in Missouri, east of Kansas City. Many of us are certain that John Ashcroft lost here not just from the sympathy vote over the dead governer that put his wife, Jean Carnafraud in office, but that illegal doings were going on in St. Louis. And I believe that Jim Talent, conservative Republican for governor who lost to liberal Democrat Bob Holden (Twice Votin-Holden) got ripped off big time too. It all seemed to happen in St. Louis and parts of Kansas City, Democrat districts, with a lot of AFL-CIO types involved in the election day festivites...
As far as finding info on illegal Democrat activity in the polling places, that is hard to find. The press tends to bury it quickly.
The Philadelphia scam, was reported one time in the local papers(phill suburbs), and I think I read about it once in a nationally syndicated editorial.
I remember in Wisconsin there was a big hooplah about college students registering illegally, and giving cigarettes to homeless people to get them to register and vote democrat.
Also, what happend in St. Louis was unbelievable. A judge ordered the polling booths to stay open 4 hours after it was supposed to close, and a judge overuled that decision after two hours of illegal voting activity. Considering it was a close race, one can certainly make the argument that Ashcroft could have4 one that election. Coupled with the fact he was running against a dead person(unconstitutional)one has to wonder why Ashcroft and the Republicans did not fight that election.
Probably because the Republicans themselves have quite a few polling violations in their past. They probably choose to stand mute because they do not want the past dug up. Democrats learned from the Republicans how to "disenfranchise" the vote.
Happiness is a warm gun