Is This What They Mean By “Outside Interests”?

One of the false accusations that Colorado State Senators John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) and Angela Giron (D-Pueblo) have made against those calling for their recall is that it was instigated by out-of-state interests. Of course, by this, they mean the NRA and other gun rights organizations. This is rich coming from two politicians who are being financially backed by Mayor Bloomberg and who have done his bidding.

Pueblo Freedom and Rights takes this issue on headfirst in one of their two TV ads running. As Colorado Peak Politics notes:

The first spot pushes back against the lies coming from Giron’s campaign that her opponents are somehow out-of-state interests, or “extremists from Denver.” It features the three plumbers from Pueblo who initiated and ran the recall effort speaking direct to camera earnestly about their grassroots effort.

The ad has a charm about it — far from a slickly produced spot, it’s a raw, amateurish ad that underscores the grassroots nature of the recall effort. No political professionals are they, but everyday citizens fed up with their rights being violated by a Senator who won’t listen.

Look at the ad below. These three guys certainly don’t appear to be big money, out of state interests.

In their second ad, they ask Sen. Giron if she will protect the Second Amendment rights of her constituents. She replies that it isn’t a yes or no answer.

If you are a voter in either of the two Senators’ districts, you need to remember you must check “Yes” for recall as well as voting for the replacement. Jim Geraghty of National Review has a great guide to the recall here.

John Morse: Guns And Gun Control? Hey, Look Over There – Squirrel!

The one thing Colorado Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) does not want to talk about is the one thing that has him facing a recall election in September. That is namely Morse’s votes for gun control and the role he played in shoving gun control through the Colorado State Senate.

As the Denver Post notes:

The reason Senate President John Morse faces a recall election that could end his political career is simple: He’s from a swing district, and he supported controversial gun-control laws.

But in the days since the recall battle began in earnest after a July filled with legal spats, Morse and a group backing the El Paso County senator — A Whole Lot of People for John Morse — have unveiled a strategy focused on everything but his gun votes.

Below is his campaign’s first TV ad. Notice that he is blaming “groups in Denver” rather than the grassroots efforts of local gun owners for the recall. Notice also that he says he wants to bring more jobs to Colorado despite the impact the gun control laws he pushed have had on the Colorado economy.

You have to wonder if Morse survives the recall effort  will he credit New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for providing the financial resources need to fund ads like the one above. After all, Bloomberg has indicated he plans to support both Morse and Sen. Angela Giron (D-Pueblo) in their fight to remain in office.

One Of The Pro-Gun Extremists Behind The Recall? Not Quite

Given that the gun prohibitionists don’t know astroturf from the real grassroots, it is not surprising that the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence is proclaiming Dudley Brown as “one of the pro-gun extremists behind the recall of CO State Senate President John Morse.” The Dudley Brown in question is the head of the National Association for Gun Rights and the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.

One of the men behind the recall of Morse and Giron? Not quite.

From the Denver Post in April when talk of a recall first surfaced:

Dudley Brown, director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, thinks the time and money would be better spent taking out Democrats in swing districts in the 2014 election.

From the Colorado politics website, Colorado Peak Politics, which posted this yesterday:

Neither the NRA nor Rocky Mountain Gun Owners did diddly squat to get the recalls on the ballot. These recalls, and most especially the Giron effort, were grassroots at their most raw.

 From the Denver Post’s The Spot blog which said this of Brown yesterday:

In April, as two recall efforts were already underway and there was talk of recalling Gov. John Hickenlooper and other Democrats, Brown said he wasn’t so sure recalling the politicians was the best strategy. He told The Denver Post then he thought the money would be better spent taking out Democrats in swing districts in the 2014 election.

From The Gazette of Colorado Springs in a feature on the grassroots organizers behind the recalls:

The four men behind the Colorado State Senate recalls on Friday laughed sardonically at the suggestion that outside interests – namely the GOP and NRA – are driving their campaigns to unseat four Democratic lawmakers.

“I think some people clamored for some help at the beginning,” said Victor Head, who led the successful campaign to force a recall election of Sen. Angela Giron, D-Pueblo. “They said ‘where’s the heavy hitters, where is the big interest in this, this has national implications’ and they never showed up.”

 Have Dudley Brown and NAGR finally stepped up for the recall fight? Yes, they have as of late yesterday when they began running a 30 second spot seen here in the Colorado Springs TV market.

I’m glad to see Dudley Brown finally step up to the plate. However, to call him one of the people behind the recall is to totally diminish the hard work done on the ground by the actual grassroots activists like Victor Head of Pueblo, Tim Knight of Durango, Anthony Garcia of Brighton and Grand Junction attorney Erik Groves who organized the Basic Freedom Defense Fund.