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campaign contributions
The Proper Response To GOP Requests For Money Is No
I received a plea for money today from Phil Berger who is the President Pro Tem of the North Carolina Senate. He was one of the politicians visited in Raleigh last week in GRNC’s Squish the Magic RINO demonstration. He was targeted because HR 746 which would allow permitless concealed carry is still bottled up in the North Carolina Senate.
The proper response to any of these supposedly pro-gun Republicans asking for money is NO. As I said in my response to Sen. Berger, I wanted to see action and that means both bringing bills to a vote and an affirmative vote.
Any damn fool in Congress or a state house can introduce a bill. It doesn’t mean it has a chance in hell of being passed. That is just a means of appeasement.
HB 746 is languishing in the North Carolina Senate waiting to be sent to the floor. Meanwhile, both national reciprocity and the Hearing Protection Act (or its variants) have not made it to the floor of either chamber of Congress. It is long past time for the state and national GOP to reward some of their most faithful supporters with passage of pro-gun legislation. Until I start to see some action, my checkbook stays closed.
Evidently Money Talks In Virginia
There has been a lot written about the ad hoc decision of Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D-VA) to drop the recognition of out of state CCW permits from 25 states. The move impacts approximately 6.3 million Americans. I am one of those as Americans as North Carolina’s permit will no longer be recognized in Virginia. However, I can assure my friends in the commonwealth that their permit will be recognized in North Carolina as we have universal recognition of out of state permits.
The non-partisan Virginia Public Access Project takes as its mission the goal of making government data regarding campaign finance disclosure understandable and accessible to the general public. From what I can see, they do a good job of it.
Given how much money Michael Bloomberg has funneled into Virginia both directly and indirectly I thought it would be interesting to see if Attorney General Herring was a recipient of his generosity. As Deep Throat said to Woodward and Bernstein, “Follow the money”.
Lo and behold the top donor to his campaign for Attorney General was none other than Independence USA PAC. They gave $1,292,417 of in-kind donations to his campaign. The money went for media production and advertising buys. To put this into perspective, the next two highest donors gave approximately half this amount each. The only candidate to get more money from that PAC was Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-VA).
Independence USA PAC is Bloomberg’s personal super-PAC. FactCheck said this about it:
Independence USA is a super PAC that focuses largely on helping to elect candidates who support stricter gun-control laws. It was founded in October 2012 by Michael Bloomberg, and, so far, has been entirely funded by the former New York City mayor.
The race for Attorney General between Herring and Republican St. Senator Mark Obershain was exceedingly close. The final vote tally left Herring winning by little more than 900 votes. Indeed, up until the last poll, Obershain was either in the lead or tied with Herring.
When you owe your elected position to Michael Bloomberg, when he says jump, you say how high. Evidently now was the time that Bloomberg said jump and jump is what Herring did in response.
We Do Raffles; They Have Billionaires
If there is anything that can illustrate the difference between the forces that want gun control and those of us who believe in freedom, it is these two stories regarding campaign money in the recall election in Colorado.
First, KVDR Fox 31 Denver reports that billionaires Eli Broad and NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg contributed a combined $600,000 to Taxpayers for Responsible Democracy. This is the committee fighting to keep Colorado Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) and Senator Angela Giron (D-Pueblo) in office.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrote a personal check for $350,000 to Taxpayers for Responsible Democracy, the issues committee fighting the recalls targeting Senate President John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron.
FOX31 Denver is first to report the group’s contributions report, filed Tuesday with the Secretary of State.
Bloomberg’s contribution reportedly came just last week, according to multiple sources close to the campaign.
Billionaire Eli Broad also wrote a $250,000 check to the organization, which raised a total of $708,000 in contributions between April and Aug. 22.
The article also reports another $95,000 came from two other contributors. According to a spokesperson for the anti-recall effort, they have had 17,000 contributors. Doing some quick math, four contributors put in $695,000 and 16,996 contributors contributed an average of 75 cents each. That doesn’t quite add up to me.
Morse’s anti-recall group, A Whole Lot of People for John Morse, has raised over $450,000 while Giron’s anti-recall group, Pueblo United for Angela, has raised $586,187.
The second story involves a raffle being organized by AR maker CMMG to raise money for Colorado Citizens Protecting Our Constitution.
CMMG, a popular manufacturer of AR-pattern rifles, and the most delicious tactical bacon a person can buy, is raffling off a custom, one-of-a-kind Mk4 D special Colorado Citizens Protecting Our Constitution-edition rifle to raise money for the upcoming recall elections of pro-gun control Colorado senators.
Anyone donating at least $5 to Colorado Citizens Protecting Our Constitution fund with the donation code “CMMG” will automatically be entered into the raffle. It’s that easy.
Missouri-based CMMG had this to say on their Facebook page about why they are doing this.
In July, Colorado had sweeping legislation aimed at disabling their citizens’ Second Amendment rights go into effect and CCPOC wants to recall the biggest supporters of the legislation, Senators Giron and Morse. With your help, CCPOC can send a message to the state of Colorado – and the country – that laws like bans on magazine capacity over 15 rounds and background checks for every firearm transfer are not tolerable.
The recall effort is and has always been a grassroots effort. It is symbolized by Victor Head and his fellow plumbers who organized the effort against Giron. I don’t see big donations coming from Kohler and American Standard to them unlike the donations that Bloomberg has made to his arrogant puppets John Morse and Angela Giron. With it likely that voters will have to vote in person rather than by mail, it will come down to whomever has the better ground game. Money can buy a lot of things but it really can’t buy passion and passion may be what wins these recall elections. Passionate voters will get to the polls and I hope that helps our side in this David versus Goliath contest.
A Suggestion
So Obama gives his endorsement – sorta, kinda, maybe – to the call for a new “assault weapons ban”. As part of a “comprehensive strategy”, he’d like to see “if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced.” While it isn’t a ringing endorsement, the media is playing it that way as are the gun prohibitionists like the Brady Campaign. So too, in all honesty, is the NRA.
Given that, I expect the sales of ARs and AKs to accelerate along with standard capacity magazines.
Here is a suggestion. Rather than running out and buying your third, fourth, or fifth AR-15 and your second or third AK-47/AK-74, why not take some of that money and make a campaign contribution or series of contributions to pro-gun rights candidates. It has the advantage of helping to elect enough pro-rights candidates which, in turn, will prevent any new AWB from even getting out of committee. Moreover, instead of having to pay some ridiculously inflated price for that next AR or AK, the market rates will remain stable or even go lower.
The NRA-PVF list of endorsements and grades are here and the GOA’s list is here. Many state level organizations such as Grass Roots North Carolina and the Illinois State Rifle Association have their grades and endorsements as well.
The price of a box or two of decent ammo sent to the right candidate in a close race helps a lot. Be selective and be strategic. Go for the close races because it will have a stronger impact. Remember also that you aren’t limited to giving money to a local candidate. So far this year I’ve given small donations to candidates in Arizona, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio plus Sen. Jim DeMint’s Senate Conservatives Fund.
If you are bound and determined to get another AR, just buy a stripped receiver for a hundred bucks or less. It is the part that has the serial number and thus is the “firearm”. You can always pick up the rest of the lower parts and a completed upper at a later date.