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Philadelphia Mayor in NRA's Line of Fire
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Philadelphia Mayor in NRA's Line of Fire
Tuesday, September 10, 2002
BY PETER JACKSON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Three years ago, the National Rifle Association praised then-Philadelphia Mayor Edward Rendell for his "courageous leadership." Now, the organization has turned against him and is trying to defeat the Democrat in his bid for governor.
Before the Democratic primary in May, the NRA ran radio ads warning gun owners that a Rendell victory "could mean harsh new restrictions on your rights and freedoms" and urged supporters to vote for his primary opponent, state Auditor General Robert Casey Jr. Casey lost.
The cover story of the August issue of American Rifleman, the NRA magazine, calls Rendell "one of the most anti-gun candidates for governor in Pennsylvania history."
The article faults Rendell for encouraging cities nationwide to sue gun manufacturers for damages caused by firearms -- though Rendell never carried out the threat himself -- and for backing gun-control proposals while he was general chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2000.
The article does not mention that Rendell has made only one gun-control proposal in the governor's race. The measure would allow people to buy only one handgun per month, a limit in place in California, Virginia, South Carolina and Maryland.
"Everything to them is black and white," Rendell said. "To cast me as an extreme liberal on this, gosh -- I'm not for registration, I'm not for licensing, I'm not for making it more difficult for people to carry a handgun. I am for one handgun a month."
A tandem article in the NRA magazine hails Mike Fisher, Rendell's Republican opponent in the Nov. 5 election, as a man who has "won many victories on behalf of the Pennsylvania gun owners and hunters." It cites his record in the state Senate and as Pennsylvania attorney general, singling out his support for mandatory prison terms for armed violent criminals as an example of fighting crime without diminishing gun owners' rights.
It incorrectly credits Fisher with organizing Operation Cease Fire in southeastern Pennsylvania -- the very program that Rendell implemented amid NRA fanfare in 1999. The program requires illegal-gun cases to be prosecuted under federal laws instead of weaker state laws.
An NRA spokesman called it a "a terminology error" but said the general thrust of the articles was accurate.
"I think Ed Rendell is on record as being a gun-control advocate," said the spokesman, Andrew Arulanandam. "No matter what he may try to do in an election year, he can't run away from that label."
http://www.sltrib.com/09102002/nation_w/118.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
Tuesday, September 10, 2002
BY PETER JACKSON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Three years ago, the National Rifle Association praised then-Philadelphia Mayor Edward Rendell for his "courageous leadership." Now, the organization has turned against him and is trying to defeat the Democrat in his bid for governor.
Before the Democratic primary in May, the NRA ran radio ads warning gun owners that a Rendell victory "could mean harsh new restrictions on your rights and freedoms" and urged supporters to vote for his primary opponent, state Auditor General Robert Casey Jr. Casey lost.
The cover story of the August issue of American Rifleman, the NRA magazine, calls Rendell "one of the most anti-gun candidates for governor in Pennsylvania history."
The article faults Rendell for encouraging cities nationwide to sue gun manufacturers for damages caused by firearms -- though Rendell never carried out the threat himself -- and for backing gun-control proposals while he was general chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2000.
The article does not mention that Rendell has made only one gun-control proposal in the governor's race. The measure would allow people to buy only one handgun per month, a limit in place in California, Virginia, South Carolina and Maryland.
"Everything to them is black and white," Rendell said. "To cast me as an extreme liberal on this, gosh -- I'm not for registration, I'm not for licensing, I'm not for making it more difficult for people to carry a handgun. I am for one handgun a month."
A tandem article in the NRA magazine hails Mike Fisher, Rendell's Republican opponent in the Nov. 5 election, as a man who has "won many victories on behalf of the Pennsylvania gun owners and hunters." It cites his record in the state Senate and as Pennsylvania attorney general, singling out his support for mandatory prison terms for armed violent criminals as an example of fighting crime without diminishing gun owners' rights.
It incorrectly credits Fisher with organizing Operation Cease Fire in southeastern Pennsylvania -- the very program that Rendell implemented amid NRA fanfare in 1999. The program requires illegal-gun cases to be prosecuted under federal laws instead of weaker state laws.
An NRA spokesman called it a "a terminology error" but said the general thrust of the articles was accurate.
"I think Ed Rendell is on record as being a gun-control advocate," said the spokesman, Andrew Arulanandam. "No matter what he may try to do in an election year, he can't run away from that label."
http://www.sltrib.com/09102002/nation_w/118.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
In governor's race, O'Brien defends gun endorsement
By John Mcelhenny, Associated Press, 9/10/2002 00:09
BOSTON (AP) Democratic frontrunner Shannon O'Brien said she received an ''A'' rating from a gun-rights group because she comes from a rural district where gun rights are highly valued.
O'Brien, who represented Easthampton in western Massachusetts while serving in the House and Senate, defended her top rating from the Gun Owners Action League at a debate of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates on Monday.
''People who live in rural and suburban communities, they would like to be able to hunt, they'd like to be able to go skeet shooting,'' O'Brien said. ''There needs to be balance.''
O'Brien, who now lives in Whitman, south of Boston, was responding to criticism from her opponents, Senate President Tom Birmingham and former state Sen. Warren Tolman, who raised the issue in a televised debate on WLVI-TV.
''Shannon, you're the only Democrat running statewide to get an A, to get the top ranking from the Gun Owners Action League,'' said Birmingham, who said he received an ''F'' from the group. ''Could you explain that to us?''
Said Tolman: ''I'm very concerned, Shannon, that you have that A rating. I don't think that's the type of leadership we need in the corner office.''
O'Brien said despite the GOAL rating, as a legislator during the 1990s she had supported an assault weapons ban in the City of Boston.
As in a debate last week in which Birmingham and Tolman assailed O'Brien for her close relationship with House Speaker Tom Finneran, the fourth Democratic candidate, former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, refused to target O'Brien on Monday night.
''Women are very sensitive to the issue of men ganging up on women, attacking women,'' Reich said, at which O'Brien interjected, ''I'm getting real used to it right now, Bob.''
Reich continued, ''The attack ads, the way in which we have conducted this campaign plays very much into the fears that women have that men are not going to be sensitive to their concerns.''
The lively exchange took place eight days before the Sept. 17 Democratic primary.
Earlier in the day, Tolman qualified for the maximum amount of public money allowed under the state's Clean Elections law, boosted by the spending of Birmingham.
Tolman has now qualified for the maximum $3.9 million in public funds, said Denis Kennedy, spokesman for the Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
The infusion of cash has allowed Tolman to run a series of expensive television ads, boosting his campaign into a virtual second-place tie with Reich, according to a University of Massachusetts poll last week.
O'Brien leads the race, with Birmingham in fourth, according to the poll.
Also on Monday, Emily's List, a Washington-based group that promotes Democratic women candidates who favor abortion rights, began running television ads defending O'Brien's management of the state pension fund.
The group ruffled feathers among O'Brien's opponents earlier in the campaign when its mailings accused Birmingham of thwarting the Clean Elections law and Republican Mitt Romney of waffling on abortion rights.
The Emily's List ad, along with two ads paid for by O'Brien's campaign, brings to three the number of ads running to defend O'Brien's pension fund management, in a last-minute blitz before the Sept. 17 Democratic primary.
Secretary of State William Galvin said many Massachusetts voters are confused about that date, because Boston television stations have been running ads for New Hampshire candidates, whose primary election is Sept. 10.
Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont all have primary elections on Sept. 10.
In the Massachusetts race, Tolman's cash infusion was triggered on Monday when Birmingham, the race's top spender, increased his spending to $4.7 million, according to campaign finance officials.
The Clean Elections law, which voters approved in 1998, gives public money to candidates who limit their spending and fund raising. It gives more money to candidates when their opponents' spending increases.
Tolman is the only one of seven gubernatorial candidates to receive Clean Elections money. If he wins the primary, he will be entitled to another $1.1 million, but that could rise to $2.6 million based on his opponents' spending
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/253/region/In_governor_s_race_O_Brien_def:.shtml
"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