NRA endorsement Archives -

NRA Endorsement: Frank Tait

In years gone by, I have done a round-up of various endorsements for the NRA Board of Directors. This year there is only one person who deserves your vote for election to the NRA Board of Directors. That person is Frank Tait.

I have gotten to know Frank fairly well over the past three years. He has the qualifications needed to represent the members of the NRA on the Board. These qualifications include being a NRA Training Counselor as well as an impressive business background in both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Even more important, he has stepped up seeking intervenor status when it was obvious that neither the NRA leadership nor the New York Attorney General’s Office was looking out for the membership in the dissolution lawsuit. That took courage and that took initiative. If that was the only thing he ever did that would have been enough to secure my vote.

It should be noted that Frank Tait is on the ballot by petition. He is the only petition candidate. That means he was put on the ballot by the members. The remaining 29 candidates on the ballot were put there by the Nominating Committee. That means they were all vetted as people who wouldn’t rock the boat and who would be good loyal “friends of Wayne.” Anecdotally, I have heard that when Judge Phil Journey made his motion for an examiner in the NRA bankruptcy case there were board members furious at the Nominating Committee for failing to ensure he would be a faithful “friend of Wayne”. I think they probably learned their lesson – unfortunately.

With the death of John Cushman and the resignation of Todd Rathner plus the 76th Director elected at the Annual Meeting, 28 out of the 30 people on the ballot will be elected. To increase the odds that Frank is elected, you need to “bullet vote” for Frank.

Jeff Knox explains it below:

By casting a ballot with only Frank Tait’s name marked, it leverages that vote, improving the odds of Frank’s election, and reducing the chances that any votes I might cast for other candidates might help push Frank down in the overall rankings, costing him a seat.

The February issue of the American Rifleman and Shooting Illustrated had an article by Jason Ouimet, Executive Director of NRA-ILA. In big bold red letters it said “Your Vote Matters.” While he was talking about the Virginia gubernatorial election, the same could be said here. The average NRA Board election has a 5-6% turnout of the eligible voters. That is pitiful and is a primary reason the same old “friends of Wayne” get elected year in and year out. If you want to see change, you need to vote and encourage your friends who are voting members to vote. Of course, that vote should only be for Frank.

Frank Tait will be one of 76 on the Board. That in and of itself won’t give him much influence. However, if elected, he can resume his motion to intervene in the dissolution lawsuit. He would have a statutory right to intervene and this time he could not be denied by Judge Cohen for not being a board member.

It is time to elect someone who is going to look out for the members and not him or herself.

The NRA Endorsement Of Trump

I posted an article from Politico on Facebook yesterday. The article said the NRA was facing member backlash from their endorsement of Donald Trump on Friday. I noted that I thought Politico was stretching to find NRA members who were opposed to the Trump endorsement. I compared it to finding people at the Annual Meeting who were in favor of universal background checks. You would find them if you looked hard. I went on to add that Politico was a part of the mainstream press whose job it seems is to get Hillary elected even if she does treat them like something she found on the bottom of her shoes.

I thought what I said was fairly uncontroversial.

I was wrong.

I have lost track of how many comments and replies pro and con the Trump endorsement that I have received. Some of the comments have up to 50 replies to them. Much of it is back and forth between people who oppose the endorsement and those who thought the NRA right to do the endorsement. To get a true feel for it you need to read the comment and then the back and forth replies.

The comments on both sides of the argument have come from people within the gun culture whom I respect for their devotion to the Second Amendment. Given that, I do see that the endorsement of Trump was more controversial than I thought.

My take on why the NRA-ILA and NRA-PVF made the endorsement now is that it was pragmatic politics. The NRA is nothing if not a practitioner of realpolik. The pragmatic consideration is that an early endorsement at a time when it would get lots of media attention cements the NRA as one of the inner circle of organizations who will have the ear of a President Trump. It is already a given that the NRA will have no seat at the table under a President Clinton. She has already declared us as one of her prime enemies.

The NRA could have waited to make the endorsement later in the campaign season but they would have risked that endorsement getting lost among other endorsements. Moreover, as some have suggested, they could have just foregone an endorsement of Trump as they have done with some past Republican nominees. Given Trump’s past pro-gun control comments, they could have been excused for going this route. That said, 2016 Trump is very pro-gun, has made very pro-gun statements throughout the campaign, and has very pro-2A positions posted on his website. It could be posited that the NRA endorsement is a reward for coming over the from the dark side.

As I said above, I do see the endorsement of Trump as being more controversial than I thought. However, pragmatically, I don’t see that the NRA had any other choice than to do what they did.