By David Codrea
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- In a setback for Michael Bloomberg and Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe, Republicans held on to their majority in the Virginia Senate. That’s despite nonstop media coverage of the Democrat governor’s political barnstorming efforts and the infusion of millions of dollars into campaign ads from out-of-state PACS, notably $2.2M from Everytown to sway voters in two key State Senate races.
Bloomberg’s “unprecedented” spending dragged out the increasingly erratic former Democrat House of Delegates candidate Andy Parker, father of the TV journalist slain on camera by a former newsman co-worker / gay prostitute / Obama supporter, to attack Republican lawyer Glen Sturtevant in the 10th District Senate race. He spent another $1.5M against Republican Hal Parrish in the Senate 29 race.
While massive spending appears to have paid off against Parrish, but not against Sturtevant, Republicans holding on to all of their seats in the Senate is a major disappointment for both Bloomberg, who saw that out-of-state money isn’t everything, and McAuliffe, who will not be able to establish a “progressive” legacy in Old Dominion much beyond the destruction he’s already done there. But there are also lessons to be learned for Republicans in general and gun owners in particular.
The first concerns the Parrish campaign. With a reported NRA rating of 79%, that equates to a mediocre C+ on the grading scale. Such dismal performance is hardly enough to motivate gun owners to do all the things necessary for victory, including actively campaigning and donating money, especially in a Democrat district with Bloomberg blanketing the airwaves. It also raises the question of what the heck the A- grade and endorsement were all about, and what that says about reliability of ratings.
As for Sturtevant, he’s lucky his district wasn’t as politically lopsided and especially lucky NRA gave him an “AQ” questionnaire rating and endorsement in spite of his reported 86% (“B” average) grade. He’s also lucky that objections raised by the Virginia Citizens Defense League over his refusal to return their survey, and concerns raised by other gun rights advocates over his “enforce existing gun laws” philosophy, did not receive wider attention. As is, his reported win was initially disputed, with his Democrat opponent holding off on immediately conceding what proved to be a very close race.
Virginia shows us the Bloomberg money machine can sputter and seize up. It also shows us Republicans need to decide who their friends are, NRA ratings are hardly the final word, and more gun owners need to remind their “leaders” that squishes don’t inspire the troops to show up and engage, let alone go all out.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and also posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
Make sure you know how your congressman or anyone running for office has felt about guns since the beginning of their careers. If they ever voted for gun control they are still for gun control. No one changes their minds on this. Don’t be fooled by politicians who say they have. Remember Obama’s mad dog attacks on guns before he ran for president the 1st time, his claim of changing when he ran the 1st time, and then big turn around when the polls closed with his 2nd election. Don’t be fooled by these people.
Great article, and great smackdown of Mike.
Cute little hit & run, Mike. Since you’re asking questions and the author answered them, how about you answering a few: What were the alleged “AQ” and “A-” based on? Unless you’re an NRA insider, you don’t know, because the questionnaires and the entire grading system has been Top Secret for over 25 years now. Is that so NRA staff and lobbyists can cut corrupt quid pro quo deals, reward things other than RKBA, take care of their pals who haven’t *earned* those grades, endorsements, money and volunteers based on either their record or their questionnaires? You actually think a… Read more »
https://waronguns.blogspot.com/2015/11/there-i-go-bashing-again.html
***IMPORTANT CORRECTION***
GREAT article David, but there is one important point: Hizzoner actually spent big in THREE races. In addition to the two open seats, that malignant dwarf also spent around 1.5 mil trying to unseat GENUINE PRO-GUN Senator Dick Black. Sen. Black fought off Hizzoner’s onslaught, and HELD his seat!
Bloomie is NOT batting .500, he actually went 1 for 3!
Keep up the good work, David!
Right Mike. We should just GIVE away support to people who duck the issues. It’s not like the Republicans would ever take us for granted, or even outright walk all over us. Oh, wait.. .
There is absolutely NO REASON to knuckle under to Senate candidates who give us the cold shoulder, because there is a 2-1 super majority in the House of Delegates. Until THAT changes, gun control is DEAD ON ARRIVAL. It is flat out STUPID to let candidates blatantly ignore us. It is an open invitation to dismiss gun owners.
Where do these percentage ratings come from that you cite in your article? Parrish had an A- and Sturtevant had an AQ from NRA. Not sure how this translates to a 79% for Parrish and 86% for Sturtevant. These numbers appear to come from Project Vote Smart but they provide no other information so including them in your article makes no sense unless it’s just to bash NRA, which is all you seem to do anyway. As for VCDL, not supporting Sturtevant or Parrish was really reckless and out of touch given Bloomberg’s $800k investment in the Sturtevant/Gecker race and… Read more »
Good article. Why doesn’t the NRA just say, “look, we know the guy’s a squish and it’s generous even to give him a B, but the other guy is an F backed by Bloomberg”? Because they think NRA members are too dumb to handle the truth? On the other hand NRA and Bloomberg backed the same horse last year in Mississippi, where both spent hundreds of thousands to reelect establishment scumbag Thad Cochran and defeat conservative Chris McDaniel in the primary. Keywords: Bloomberg’s big money support doesn’t guarantee victory “for now”. The gun community is portraying it as a victory… Read more »