Terry McAuliffe will work for New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and not you:
Support common sense gun control measures
As Governor, Terry will support mainstream and majority supported gun control measures like universal background checks, limiting the size of magazines, and a return to the 1-gun-per-month rule. These measures respect Virginians’ right to bear arms while reducing gun violence.
I guess he didn’t learn anything from Colorado. I’ll give Bloomberg one thing, he’s pretty good at getting Democrats to step off the cliff. Bloomberg wants to show that the recall was a one off thing, and that a Democrat sporting Bloomberg’s positions on gun control can win in a purple state like Virginia.
Looking at it that way it makes sense why McAuliffe would open his mouth on this. Normally when you’re in the lead and the other guy is nibbling at you, you don’t open yourself up to contreversial positions.
Not in a purple state with a big gun culture.
Sure, given McAuliffe’s history and friends he’d obviously be anti-gun, but there wasn’t a need to confirm it.
Especially with him endorsing “one gun a month”. That’s some old school gun control there. That outright says “We don’t trust you proles, and we need a registy and private sale ban to keep you in line.” Heck, one gun a month didn’t even come up this year in any of the anti laws.
But if Bloomberg is using a clusterfark election to try to prove how “gun control wins” then this would fit the bill.
Bloomberg needs to come down and campaign for him, I think.
He just might. Bloomberg is very arrogant and does not like being slighted. The more invested in this election he gets the more he’ll meddle and show up.
Maybe Terry will start endorsing waiting periods too.
I will say that Bloomberg is also good at “purifying” the Democratic Party’s reputation. Colorado dems largly got their control by not talking about guns or saying they were pro gun. They worked hard to wipe away “Democrat == Take away guns” and “Democrate == Takes marching orders from the Liberal Elite”
And here’s Bloomberg erasing all that work.
Imagine! Loyal to the party line, but not the people! Who would have thought it?
Merle
He’s not Governor – he’s running for governor.
If he’s elected with that as his platform, and tries to implement it, he’ll be being loyal to his electorate, who knew what they were asking for, because he told them.
Was gun control already baked into this election? Do the current polls reflect the stance of Virginians on these issues?
If not this could be a great win for us. From what I see McAuliffe is just up by a few % points — a solid lead but not enough that it couldn’t be turned around by firing up gun owners.
If progunners are as successful in VA as in Colorado, and snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat based on Bloomberg involvement, this would make for a serious 1-2 punch going into 2014.
You’ve got 6 weeks Virginians. Make it happen for all of us!
Wasn’t VA (just outside the beltway) where those long lines of people standing in line buying guns were witnessed during the great gunpocalypse just a few months ago? Are they just going to sit on their hands cause they have theirs? We’ll see.
For the life of me, I do not understand why he would do that. As far as I know, Virginia is pretty pro-2A. CO was turning even bluer than Virginia and look what happened. Is Bloomberg a conservative plant hell bent on destroying the Democrat party? Do they truly believe their own hype that in order to win the war, they have to break a few egg shells and lose a number of states in the process? How is that going to work? Is Obama truly planning on asking for more 2A conversations all the way up to 2014? Have they lost their collective mind?
Don’t get me wrong, I would be happy if they would keep it up until next fall. I just don’t understand how it’s a winning proposition for them, especially given what just happened in CO. Anybody have a better take?
I suppose Bloomberg wants to have a fresh win to reassure jittery dems that his money can protect out and out gun banners.
Hence why Terry couldn’t keep dog whistling or even limit himself to Banning private sales. Instead Terry has to go out on mag bans with a one-gun-a-month capper.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Terry didn’t start going on about Assault Weapons too.
I guess we will find out if Virginians can mobilize against this, or if soccer moms needing action really are a dominating force to be feared.
Perhaps their husbands should “step up” and keep them otherwise occupied :)
Merle
I think you might be right. If sales of Shades of Grey are any indicators, it looks like suburban moms are in dire need of action.
I think Bloomberg HAS to make a major point before 2014, and after his loss in Colorado I think this is his last/best opportunity.
Some respect for McAuliffe — he came out with this enough before the election that the electorate can respond and there will be some time to fight on the issues. I don’t know how much bloomberg money is involved already/how much momentum he’s built, but if they win this it will do a lot of offset Colorado losses, which weren’t statewide but in specific rural districts.
On the other hand if we win this … it IS a statewide win and along with the Colorado wins it’s huge.
Terry failed to get the Va. Dem.s nomination four years ago but he was able to buy it this time. From the little I know him; he has never held a significant elected office (maybe student government?) and his newspaper editorial board interviews indicate he just does not understand the powers of our Governor’s office. His political skills seem limited as does his appreciation of our electorate: he is simply a political operative, an opportunist and a carpetbagger. He has minimal ties to the Commonwealth.
His opponent has shaken up his own campaign team, the GOP and its PACs are showing some support so the weak lead Terry has may shrink. At least our General Assembly should remain red for the next few years. It is an “off year” election for us so the urban democrat voter may stay home.
I’m praying for heavy rain on Election Day.
No significant office or skills is detrimental? Didn’t seem to inhibit our illustrious president.
Merle
That’s why I’m praying for rain!
I want to find who those 8-10% “libertarians” are from these polls who aren’t happy enough with keeping gun rights…
So Bloomberg’s Blue Army is crossing the Potomac and headed for Richmond?
I know that McAuliffe’s specialty is fundraising, but surely there are other people that would want to get involved in his campaign. In the last week he has slipped in the polls to a statistical dead heat, so I guess that explains the timing of this new development. The question is, what is up his sleeve? And that of his handlers? It is an off year election so turnout is key, why go poking that bee hive? Why not just let his record and the assumption that since he is a democrat, he is for gun control, work in his favor without nailing down a plank for his candidacy? I can’t see him picking up all that many votes by getting his gun-control going on, so why risk getting gunnie fence-sitters to bother going to vote? In a campaign where both candidates have very legitimate hurdles to overcome, why bring it up? I almost wonder if someone on the staff put it on there without sufficient oversight; it has happened in politics before.
Virginians got just 6-weeks to turn into Californians! Bi-coastal baby!
I wonder what polls the Democrats are looking at — if any — as they do this?
From my perspective the best campaign position the Democrats have going for them is that they aren’t the Republicans. Why do they need to extra-guild the Liberal Lily, while in the process probably bringing out some voters who will turn out just to vote against gun control?
That’s what gets me.
Terry didn’t need to trot out his anti-gun cred. Anyone anti who cared would know it already.
And for those on the fence, well, he’s not a Republican.
Terry got paid to make the move. Bloomberg has more money to waste on it. Virginia is still fairly 2A friendly, and still even in “blue areas” like Northern Virginia (around the beltway) and Richmond. It doesn’t make sense, unless Bloomberg convinced him it wouldn’t hurt his campaign. (Which is funny because polls showed over 60% don’t like Bloomberg meddling in Virginia…) It might take a week to get spun up, but this will be a rallying point against him. I have seen some comments along the line of “I was going to vote libertarian, but I will hold my nose this time to keep this guy away from our guns/gun rights.” I hope he makes a couple other blunders so we can be rid of the sycophant for more than 4 years.