snoopy

As you might expect, the NRA is pretty pleased with last night’s electoral results in their home state of Virginia. They’ve just issued a press release taking a little victory dance. Can you blame them? . . .

Virginians Reject Michael Bloomberg’s Pro-Gun Control Campaign and Defeat His Efforts to Flip Control of Virginia Senate.

  • “The political calculus has changed, and this is what Virginians and Americans expect uur elected leaders to do to prevent gun violence.”  — Everytown President John Feinblatt (Laura Vozzella, “Bloomberg’s Gun-Control Group Bankrolls $1.5 Million Ad Buy In Second Va. Race,” The Washington Post, 10/22/15).
  • “I need one seat to get control of the Senate, and we can pass common sense gun laws,” McAuliffe pleaded to Virginia voters Monday night on MSNBC’s

Virginia voters dealt New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg and out of state gun control groups a stinging defeat in the 2015 election. 

  • Bloomberg attempted to swing control of the Virginia Senate by spending millions to elect pro-gun control candidates, but his efforts were thwarted by candidates endorsed by the National Rifle Association (NRA).
  • Bloomberg and out of state gun-control groups spent nearly $3 million dollars on a pro-gun control message promoting their candidates and attacking NRA-backed candidates for their support of the Second Amendment.  92% of NRA-backed candidates won in spite of their efforts.
  • Bloomberg and out of state gun control groups went all-in to buy an electoral victory in Virginia, but their plans backfired when voters rejected Bloomberg’s gun control agenda.
  • For weeks, Bloomberg’s gun control groups have been saying the calculus has changed and they were poised to deliver their first pro-gun control electoral victories. Voters rejected their agenda, and 92% of NRA-backed candidates won on Election Day.
  • “Everytown’s big investment in Virginia reflects not only the stakes of the Senate races for McAuliffe but also the belief among gun-control advocates that their cause has begun to gain steam even in gun-friendly states after high-profile mass shootings, such as the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.” (Laura Vozzella, “Bloomberg’s Gun-Control Group Bankrolls $1.5 Million Ad Buy In Second Va. Race,” The Washington Post, 10/22/15)
  • “Sturtevant’s victory margin in Powhatan also raised questions about whether a big gun-control advertising push for Gecker by a national group backed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg backfired by turning out gun-rights advocates at the polls. Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund spent $700,000 on advertising on behalf of Gecker. ‘Amazing Powhatan turnout. Definitely Bloomberg backlash,’ longtime Democratic political operative Paul Goldman said in a text message.” http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/article_c9cfd8ac-8392-55f4-9924-af3684df8a77.html
  • The latest NRA victory reinforces public polling showing a majority of Americans do not want more gun control. A recent CNN poll found that 52% of Americans oppose stricter gun control laws, six percentage points more than the 46% of Americans who support such laws. That’s a wider gap than in June, when CNN last surveyed Americans on gun control and found that the public was equally split at 49% on the issue. http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/21/politics/gun-control-poll-americans/
  • It also shows again that the power of the NRA lies in its grassroots strength and the fact that they can mobilize their five million members and tens of millions of supporters to go to the polls and vote for pro-Second Amendment candidates.

Blomberg’s Biggest Fail: SD-10 Sturtevant v Gecker

  • Bloomberg’s top target was NRA-backed Glen Sturtevant in SD-10.
  • Obama won SD-10 with 50% of the vote.
  • Bloomberg invested $730,000 in this race and ran a television ad featuring Andy Parker, father of Allison Parker, the Roanoke television reported killed on air. Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS) spent an additional $720,000 on pro-gun control advertising, opposing Sturtevant and supporting his opponent.
  • The NRA spent far less mobilizing our grassroots with phone, mail and targeted digital advertising.
  • The NRA aired an ad pushing back on Bloomberg and his anti-freedom agenda. https://www.nraila.org/media/20151103/audio/bloomberg
  • Sturtevant ran ads pushing back on Bloomberg’s attacks and his pro-gun control message.
  • BOTTOM LINE:  Bloomberg spent almost $1 million in a swing district to defeat an NRA-backed candidate with a pro-gun control message and lost.

SD-13 Black v McCabe

  • Out of state gun control groups spent nearly $100,000 in this race opposing NRA-backed Dick Black and supporting his opponent, pro-gun control candidate Jill McCabe.  The NRA candidate won.

Bloomberg’s Most Embarrassing FAIL: SD-29 McPike v Parrish

  • Bloomberg spent $1.7 million to elect a Democrat in a solidly blue Northern Virginia district. To add insult to injury, his gun control candidate underperformed Obama’s 2012 election by nearly 10%. In 2012, President Obama won SD-29 by 63% of the vote while Bloomberg-backed McPike only got 54% of the vote.
  • The Bloomberg groups are touting this as a gun control win, but the fact is that even in this solidly blue Northern Virginia district Bloomberg did not push a gun control message. https://youtu.be/XBgAouiuGzs
  • Instead they ran ads focused on a myriad of issues including education and women’s health, throwing in a dash of gun control for PR purposes. https://youtu.be/6kLPPcfr54U
  • The NRA did not counter on TV or radio in SD-29.
  • Hal Parrish did not push back on Bloomberg.
  • In SD-10 Glen Sturtevant pushed back on Bloomberg and stood by his pro-Second Amendment values. The NRA countered with an anti-Bloomberg, pro-Second Amendment message on radio, in the mail, with phone calls and digital advertising. The pro-Second Amendment NRA-backed candidate won. https://www.nraila.org/media/20151103/audio/bloomberg

 

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38 COMMENTS

  1. I live in Northern Va. I couldn’t have been happier this morning when I woke up and saw how much money that fucking yankee twat had blown tying to buy our election. I wouldn’t piss in his mouth if his teeth were on fire.

  2. One would hope this will teach Bloomie that people do not agree with his vision of a gun free (except for his body guards, govt., cops, etc.) America. Sadly we all know better.

  3. Congratulations to The Old Dominion! I am happy for you and grateful for the slap in the face you gave Bloomberg and his allies!

  4. Flipping the Senate would mean absolutely nothing as far as passing gun control legislation. With Republican control of the House of Delegates no downstate Democrat in the Senate would risk voting for gun control.

    This is a big defeat for McAullife in general. Without control of the state senate he has no bargaining power with the legislature. Basically he will be a do nothing governor which will kill any political future in the state of Virginia. The bad news is that he is smart enough to tell Hillary to cool it on gun control.

    • “The bad news is that he is smart enough to tell Hillary to cool it on gun control.”

      The good news is the HildaBeast won’t listen to that warning.

      She’ll go balls, er, ovaries-to-the-wall on gun control.

      Bill was smart enough to read the political winds.

      She isn’t…

      • Funny enough the phrase “balls to the wall” doesn’t relate to testicles. Actually, it comes from the speed governors that were put on older machinery. The governors were two steel balls on the end of pendulum-like rods. As the shaft they were attached to spun, they would move outwards due to centripetal force. Saying that someone is going “balls to the wall” refers to these speed balls, which would fly outwards when a machine was ran at full speed.

    • Technically, he’s in the Clintons’ pocket as much as they are him. He was a big time Democrat fundraiser (which is why he was able to carpetbag into Virginia and STILL win the Governorship), so he was able to call in networking favors so that they actually went on the VA campaign trail with him.

      Conversely, now that the Clintons are back on their own, he’ll try his damnedest to get them votes in (horrifyingly) blue Northern Virginia.

      However, as Virginia is technically a swing state, it’s hard to tell this far out. The Obamacare fatigue is real, even amongst staunch would-be Dems in VA (as they’re mostly well-ish-to-do middle-class, who got pretty shafted in the Obamacare reset of insurance).

      Really, if there were a more centric Republican candidate, the state overall would support him. Democrats in Northern Virginia, like most other voters in this state, are notably looking out for their well-being and ostensible comfort (which heavily protects itself as a swing state, at least in the pre-Bush Jr. era). Obama is a relatively tarnished name (and eight years of Democratic president don’t help the fickle VA populace).

      But we can only hope…

  5. This is how we will win elections — by running against Bloomberg. Not too many people in “flyover country” would vote for a New York City midget oligarch with delusions of infallibility.

    Even New York City got sick of the little bastard. In 2009, he won his last election with only 50.7% of the vote against a bunch of losers who nobody knew and nobody can remember.

    • Not too many people in “flyover country” would vote for a New York City midget oligarch with delusions of infallibility.

      Hey, wait a minute. I thought TTaG had a “no flaming” policy.

      Pffffftttttttttttttt … bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!

  9. Congratulations, VA. At least I can take pleasure in that. The PA Supreme Court flipped from GOP control to Dem control yesterday. Real leftists. Will be in their hands for 10 years at least. It’s hard to overstate how bad this is for PA firearms freedom.

    Sorry to bitch during your celebration. As I said, it’s nice to hear some good news too.

      • I guess that title would have to go to New Jersey, still. Or NY, MA, CT, MD. But yes, it really looks like PA is headed that direction.

  10. The takeaway that I see here is that for various reasons the NRA did not compete in SD-29 and the pro-gun candidate did not push back against Bloomers. So we lost that seat. Is that right? Wonder why we wrote of that district?

    • As a resident I’ve been asking myself that question all day. Even the former democratic senator’s family supported our candidate. My only thought is that the powers that be assumed the race wouldn’t be as tight as it was. A hollow victory for me today.

  13. The NRA is doing the right thing by being more responsive these days. From WLP’s video last week, to the rapid announcement today, it’s a good thing. For every Bloomberg bluster after a shooting, the NRA needs to respond within minutes if possible…

  14. If only Mr. Bloomberg had spent that money on law enforcement, say, for example, helping New York police get their crime closure rates to a reasonable level.

    Here’s the evidence – from NPR of all places (http://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/395069137/open-cases-why-one-third-of-murders-in-america-go-unresolved) :

    If you’re murdered in America, there’s a 1 in 3 chance that the police won’t identify your killer. To use the FBI’s terminology, the national “clearance rate” for homicide today is 64.1 percent. Fifty years ago, it was more than 90 percent. And that’s worse than it sounds, because “clearance” doesn’t equal conviction: It’s just the term that police use to describe cases that end with an arrest, or in which a culprit is otherwise identified without the possibility of arrest — if the suspect has died, for example.

    Murder – 73% in 2013, 71% in 2014
    Property crimes – around 25%

    So, over 1 in 4 murders go unsolved and 3 out of 4 property crimes are never resolved in Mr. Bloomberg’s backyard.

    Don’t even try to look for Chicago there. The statistics are “incomplete” or unavailable or just too awful to actually report.

  15. I get a mite annoyed at all the NRA hate I see on here. Good things from Virginia-thanks NRA. Send ’em some $…

  16. As Dom Raso said, Bloomberg is one guy with millions, but we are millions with our 25 bucks. Of course, there is also our donations to the political victory fund.

    That is one of the reasons why we are stronger. The NRA is actively supported by each of its members, while Everytown is subsidized almost completely by Bloomberg.

    Just don’t get too comfortable. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. This isn’t Bloomberg’s first attack and it won’t be his last.

  17. Also, a major driver of crime in this country is poverty. If Bloomberg really wants to make this country safer, he should invest in improving impoverished neighborhoods and helping charities and rehab centers.

  18. Great thing the American voice! Piss on all of those who want to screw with the Constitution and the 2nd amendment. Now lets kick Kalifornia in the ass and shame those liberals into submission, and get someone who will stick out there necks and destroy those in office.

  19. As a WA ST resident who saw the Bloomberg et al buy I-594 I compliment VA and the NRA. Please come out west!

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