Associated Press reporting NRA for McDonnell
By JR Hoeft | Monday, September 14th, 2009 | Politics
The AP’s Bob Lewis is reporting that the NRA will endorse Bob McDonnell for governor. If you recall, they endorsed Creigh Deeds in the 2005 race.
Update: Chris Cox, NRA-PVF Chairman and NRA Institute for Legislative Action Executive Director noted, “Bob McDonnell is an effective leader for Virginia hunters and gun owners. His opinions and actions as an attorney general have protected and enhanced the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Virginians. His zero-tolerance attitude toward criminals makes him the best choice for governor. We ask every Virginia hunter, gun owner and Second Amendment advocate to vote McDonnell for Governor this November.”
While this will certainly hurt Deeds with the so-called “Deeds’ Country” voter, will it shore up support in the more liberal areas of the state? The usual suspects are already celebrating.
Which, to me, is cause for celebration! Welcome home, Deeds’ Country!
Jim Geraghty of National Review also has some interesting thoughts on today’s endorsement too:
The spin from some quarters preferring Deeds is that this development will motivate liberals in Northern Virginia to turn out for Deeds. Uh-huh. Last week we were being assurd that the brouhaha over the thesis and Creigh Deeds’ ads charging that McDonnell wants to take Virginia “back to the dark ages” were going to do that.
Tags:
Contribute for Conservatism!
Share this post
About the author
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
Comments
7 Responses to "Associated Press reporting NRA for McDonnell"
Not too much of a surprise, since the NRA cost Deeds the 2005 race by leaving him off their sample ballot. (I’ve got to believe being on their sample ballot is worth more than 400 votes statewide. If not, all the politicians should quite kissing up,) In addition, Wayne LaPierre did a robo-call for McDonnell. The NRA is essentially an organ of the Republican Party. This is as surprising as the VEA endorsing Deeds.
This is a big deal just because they did endorse Deeds last time. Deeds is sinking fast and everyone knows it. Besides the Farm Bureau was also a big boost for Bob. Deeds can talk about the F bomb and thesis all he wants Bob is winning and the Ds know it.
Stonewall:
I don’t think there’s any doubt that, at the moment, McDonnell’s winning.
Deeds has to change the conversation somehow and he hasn’t succeeded in doing that yet.
I just don’t think the NRA endorsement is particularly significant. If they’d have endorsed Deeds again, that would have been somewhat noteworthy, but this is just “dog bites man.”
If there is anything that demonstrates 1) how politically opportunistic the NRA is, and 2) that the NRA’s polling data has McDonnell winning, it is this.
But to his credit, atleast Deeds was willing to change positions after 32 people died at Virginia Tech. Why didn’t McDonnell do that?
One of the greatest mysteries for me is why the NRA doesn’t spend it’s time advocating Responsible Firearm usage by keeping guns out of the hands of people that shouldn’t be getting their hands on them (i.e. People with proven criminal histories, mentally unstable people)instead of raising money to defeat Democrats.
Mark, EVERYBODY’S polling has McDonnell winning.
Bigvinu
McDonnell and Kaine worked together to fix the mental health loophole, The Tech killers mental history did not show up on his background check. And He did get a background check when He bought the gun.
Leave your response
The comments section is for meaningful discussion. Readers are reminded to post comments that are germane to the article and write in a common language that steers clear of personal attacks and/or vulgarities.
Please take a moment to review our comment policy.