Posts Tagged ‘2014 Election’

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Reminder: Mark Udall is a Gun Grabber

Wednesday, October 8th, 2014

After his fellow Democrats went down in flames during the recall election, Colorado’s incumbent Senator would probably prefer you forget his own support for gun control,. After all, his own campaign website is silent on the issue, and his Senate website includes the usual insincere blather about supporting the Second Amendment.

Now is a good time to remind voters that Udall has been significantly to the left of even his fellow democratic senators in pushing for gun control:

Colorado’s Mark Udall indicated support for two key proposals of President Obama’s legislative package to reduce gun violence, taking a stand slightly to the left of his fellow Senate Democrats who also are up for re-election in 2014.

The Colorado Democrat told Denver’s FOX affiliate last month he supports a renewal of the assault-weapons bans that lapsed in 2004.

After Obama rolled out his legislative proposals and signed executive orders Wednesday, Udall released a statement that indicates he also supports a ban on magazine clips of more than 10 bullets.

In other words, Udall favors, at the national level, the same legislation that drove Magpul out of the state.

Udall also engages in the deliberately deceptive labeling of modern sporting rifles (AR-15, etc.) as “military-grade weapons”.

Further signs of his gun-grabbing bona fides is the fact that Udall is receiving lots of money from out-of-state gun control groups. Udall has also been endorsed by the latest incarnation of Bloomberg’s anti-gun group.

All of which goes a long way toward explaining why Udall received a D from the NRAPVF.

Any Colorado supporter of the Second Amendment should vote for Cory Gardner over Udall in November.

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Posted in Democrats, Elections, Guns | No Comments »

Why Mary Landrieu Sucks

Monday, October 6th, 2014

(I was trying to think of a more clever headline, but let’s just go with the obvious, shall we?)

One of the last, best hopes for Obama and Harry Reid to keep control of the senate is Louisiana incumbent Mary Landrieu hanging on to one of the last Democratic seats in the south.

Let’s discuss just the highlights of why Louisianans should vote for Rep. Bill Cassidy over Landrieu. The latest polls show Casserly up, but at under 50%. (And remember that the Democrat’s ground game surprised a lot of pollsters in 2012.)

ObamaCare

Remember how Mary Landrieu was one of the deciding votes for ObamaCare in the senate?

Now she’s making all sorts of noises about protecting Louisiana citizens from the effects of the law she passed. Gee, maybe shouldn’t have bragged about how she didn’t need to read the bill:

Contrary to popular belief and what FOX News said, people here read the bills. For 40 years we read the bills. But we did not have to read the bills; all we had to do was look at the faces of kids dying of cancer who had no way to get cured… I don’t need to read a bill. I listen to my constituents. That is what this is about.

Somehow I doubt she’s going to listen to those whose policies were canceled, or whose prices doubled or tripled, thanks to ObamaCare. Maybe that’s why 59% of Louisianans oppose ObamaCare, and more than half disapprove of Landrieu’s performance.

And Landrieu says she would vote for ObamaCare again. Maybe that’s why the National Federation of Independent Business has endorsed Cassidy. (More on Landrieu’s ObamaCare support here.)

Poor Second Amendment Record

Landrieu got a D from the NRA-PVF on her gun rights voting record. Despite crowing about her Second Amendment support, she has voted for several gun control measures. While not as hostile to Second Amendment rights as Nancy Pelosi or Andrew Cuomo, she’s betrayed gun rights enough for Louisiana gun owners to be leery of her.

No less than Michelle Obama said that re-electing Landrieu was critical for gun control efforts. And remember: When push comes to shove, there’s no such thing as a pro-gun Democrat. I guarantee you that Mary Landrieu is no more “pro-gun” than Bart Stupak was pro-life.

Ignoring Louisiana

Mary Landrieu doesn’t actually live in Louisiana:

In Washington, Sen. Mary Landrieu lives in a stately, $2.5 million brick manse she and her husband built on Capitol Hill.

Here in Louisiana, however, the Democrat does not have a home of her own. She is registered to vote at a large bungalow in New Orleans that her parents have lived in for many decades, according to a Washington Post review of Landrieu’s federal financial disclosures and local property and voting records.

On a statement of candidacy Landrieu filed with the Federal Election Commission in January, she listed her Capitol Hill home as her address.

It takes a special kind of stupid to put your D.C. mansion down as your home address.

Finally, for a hard-hitting look at how Mary Landrieu has ignored her constituents, take a look at this ad:

Reminder: Louisiana has system whereby the top two candidates will go to a runoff on December 6. Unless Bill Cassidy is able to win outright in November (which seems doubtful at this point), he’s going to need help in the runoff. And if the control of the senate hangs in the balance, you know Democrats will pull out all the stops to keep Harry Reid in power…

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Posted in Democrats, Elections, Guns, ObamaCare, video | No Comments »

In Which I Pwn Liberal Tweeter @2miche

Tuesday, September 30th, 2014

“Daddy, what did you do during the Twitter Wars?”

I offer up the following example of countering the usual “The evil Koch brothers outspend everyone!” liberal talking point, and how quickly Democrats turn tale and run when faced with actual facts. All tweets verbatim. (Including a few of my own typos. Mea culpa. I plead Twitter.)

And then I posted this:

Not in this thread, but worth noting for the future, is how liberals like to bring up Koch “dark money” donations, but then conveniently omit mention of left-leaning dark money operations like Patriot Majority USA. Indeed, as of November last year, liberal money made up 70% of dark money spending.

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Will Colorado Crapweasel John Hickenlooper Get Booted From the Governor’s Mansion?

Wednesday, September 24th, 2014

A new Quinnipiac poll shows Colorado’s incumbent Democratic governor John Hickenlooper down ten points to Republican challenger Bob Beauprez.

Michelle Malkin explains why:

It was Hickenlooper who caved to East Coast gun-control zealots and partisan White House lobbying. As Democratic state legislators rigged the hearing process, snubbed Colorado constituents and insulted Second Amendment-supporting women during hearings last year, Hickenlooper was chumming it up on the phone with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Vice President Joe Biden.

You may remember how well ramming through gun control initiatives worked out for Colorado Democrats: Two Democratic state senators got recalled and a third resigned rather than face a recall election.

Hickenlooper was a key player in getting those unpopular measures passed, and this year he may pay the price for it, despite his incredulity at the issue being held against him. (“”What the f—? I apologized!”)

For all the talk of Colorado turning blue, keep in mind that Obama only won 51.5% of the vote in 2012. And if Hickenlooper loses, that will leave exactly one Democratic governor “left standing between California and Missouri.”

Even a Washington Post piece that poo-poos the Quinnipiac poll notes that Hickenlooper has “refused to make clear his position.” They were talking about his position on the Keystone pipeline, but the description applies just as well to a number of other issues Hickenlooper has refused to take a stand on. Long-time political observers know exactly what such reticence indicates: A liberal politician unwilling to let voters know exactly how far-left and out of touch his core convictions are compared to theirs.

One of those issues is flip-flopping on whether to allow the execution of a convicted murderer:

Last month, Bob Crowell — father of 19-year-old murder victim Sylvia Crowell — blasted Hickenlooper for indefinitely delaying the execution of mass murderer Nathan Dunlap. When Hickenlooper confided in CNN that he might grant Dunlap clemency if he loses in November, Crowell didn’t mince words. “I think that’s the coward’s way out, and I view John Hickenlooper as a coward.”

After the recall, I wrote “Bottom line: If you’re a politician, and you choose to listen to Nurse Bloomberg rather than your constituents, you will be replaced.” I suspect that John Hickenlooper is about to learn that, good and hard.

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Rich Liberal Trial Lawyer Steve Mostyn is the Bank Behind Texas Municipal Police Association PAC

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014

It’s always interesting to find out where the money for innocuous sounding political committees is really coming from. Today the Dallas Morning news revealed that rich liberal trial lawyer Steve Mostyn provides the majority of money behind the Texas Municipal Police Association PAC.

Houston trial lawyer and political mega donor Steve Mostyn, who usually helps Democratic candidates, bankrolled a police group that was mostly playing in GOP primaries last spring because he’s from Tyler and wanted to knock off tea party-backed freshman Republican Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, a spokesman said Monday.

Snip.

Among the PAC’s targets were attorney general candidate Ken Paxton of McKinney, whom the law enforcement group’s president chided in this open letter for failing to register as an investment adviser. The omission drew Paxton, a freshman state senator, a fine from the Texas State Securities Board. Three months earlier, the police PAC endorsed Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, Paxton’s chief rival for attorney general. In a May 27 runoff, Paxton crushed Branch.

The association says it has more than 20,000 members who are law enforcement officers and first responders. Late last year, its PAC moved early to back Republican Speaker Joe Straus for re-election to his House seat in San Antonio. In this year’s GOP House primaries, the PAC generally supported Straus allies. For instance, it helped Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, who won; and Rep. Bennett Ratliff, R-Coppell, who narrowly lost.

This confirms, yet again, another reason why it’s high time Straus was ousted from the Speaker’s chair.

Of the $72,000 the municipal police association PAC has raised this year, 69 percent came from the Mostyn Law Firm, according to a Dallas Morning News review of campaign-finance reports to the Texas Ethics Commission. Of the $81,500 the PAC has spent on candidates in 2014, just over $52,000 — or 64 percent — went to buy radio ads, mailers and brochures for Schaefer’s GOP challenger, Tyler businessman Skip Ogle, the newspaper found.

How did that work out?

The effort failed as Schaefer, one of the House’s most conservative members, fended off Ogle in the initial March 4 balloting, 61 percent to 39 percent.

In other words, it worked out pretty much the same way as just about all of Steve Mostyn’s political donations work out: Abject failure.

So whatever happened to Mostyn’s plans to head up to New York City?

(Hat tip: Michael Quinn Sullivan’s Twitter feed.)

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Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »

Follow-Up On Abbott-Davis RGV Debate

Saturday, September 20th, 2014

The Abbot campaign sent around this two minute exchange from the debate as being Davis’ most cringe-worthy performance:

The Houston Chronicle says that Abbott is right on the facts in that exchange:

Shot: Davis said “the only thing right now coming between our children and appropriate funding of their schools is (Abbott).”

Fact: It’s a little more complicated than that. This charge came in the lead-up to her sole question of her Republican opponent, which was whether he would drop the state’s appeal of a judge’s ruling that Texas’ school finance scheme is unconstitutional. Abbott is defending the law passed by the Legislature – as is the job of the attorney general. So while Abbott may get pinned with continuing to legally vouch for the state’s $5.4 billion in cuts to Texas public schools in 2011, he retorted that it was the Legislature that stood between the children and appropriate funding. Abbott also correctly pointed out that the Legislature passed a law last session that limited the attorney general’s ability to settle cases like the one over school finance.

Even a friendly press is saying that Davis “fails to land blows on Republican rival.”

Dallas Morning News: Davis “failed to rattle a poised Greg Abbott…At one point he asked Davis if she were still glad she had voted for the president, whose deep unpopularity in the state is a headache for Democrats. Davis laughed at the question but didn’t answer it.”

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Posted in Elections, Texas, video | No Comments »

WendyBot5000. Will. Continue. Speaking!

Friday, September 19th, 2014

Well, if Wendy Davis was hoping the Rio Grande Valley debate would help her catch up to Greg Abbott, she probably should have worked to have a voice other than the pre-programmed monotone she used. She also loses points for the lack of discipline at having answers that extended beyond her allotted time (which I commend the debate hosts for strictly enforcing), and then continuing to talk rudely over their attempts to shut her off.

Abbott won by a comfortable margin. Davis wins points for actually knowing the Mexican Water Treaty of 1944, but loses even more points for flat out lying about Republicans wanting to repeal the Voting Rights Act of 1964, as opposed to ending the preclearence requirements.

I doubt terribly many minds were changed by the debate, except possibly those of donors who previously thought Davis might be worth giving more money to…

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Posted in Border Control, Crime, Elections, Texas | No Comments »

Greg Abbott Debates Wendy Davis Tonight At 6 PM

Friday, September 19th, 2014

Tonight Greg Abbott faces off against Wendy Davis in the Texas gubernatorial debate. In Austin it should be broadcast here live starting at 6 PM.

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Texas Governor’s Race Update for September 12, 2014

Friday, September 12th, 2014

Reporting on the Wendy Davis campaign at this point is like reporting on the Titanic 80% of the way into the sinking (“And there goes the second smokestack under the waves!”). But someone has to write a first draft of those epic failures for the historical record, so let’s press on…

Right now polls show Greg Abbott up a comfortable 18 points over Davis, 54% to 36%.

It’s gotten so bad that the Davis campaign “leaked” one of those ridiculous, can’t remotely trust them “internal polls” that shows her a mere 8 points behind Abbott, 38% to his 46%. You know it’s bad when you can’t even pretend to be winning in your own fantasy land poll.

Also, the Abbott campaign filed an ethics complaint against the Davis campaign for using her campaign funds to attend a book signing in New York City. (I wonder if her New York City signing had the same strict conditions as her Austin signing.) Since Davis did have one fundraising event on the trip, I doubt the complaint will succeed legally, but it does further the Abbott campaign’s picture of Davis as a woman who has more supporters in New York and California than in Texas.

The big question at this point is: What’s the floor for how poorly Wendy Davis can do in the general election? I think she can drop below the 39.96% Tony Sanchez garnered in 2002. I don’t see her eclipsing the pitiful low-mark of Garry Mauro’s 31.18% in 1998, much less Chris Bell’s 29.79% in the 4-way Perry-Bell-Strayhorn-Friedman race in 2006. Davis has garnered a lot more fawning media attention than Sanchez ever got, and didn’t have the bruising primary fight Sanchez had against Dan Morales, much less one where her opponent ended up endorsing the Republican nominee, as Morales did. On the other hand, Davis doesn’t have $60 million of her own money to spend on her campaign the way Sanchez did.

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“No One Is Allowed To Take Pictures of The Great and Powerful Wendy Davis!”

Wednesday, September 10th, 2014

Wendy Davis is signing at Austin book store Bookpeople tomorrow (September 11, 2014) at 12:30 PM. (Bookpeople, if you haven’t been there, is a nice independent bookstore that has all kinds of authors in for signings, not just liberal politicians, and Rick Perry signed there in 2008.)

The signing itself is not odd, it’s the conditions for the signing that are odd:

EVENT GUIDELINES

  • This event is a SIGNING only. Senator Davis will not give a public talk.
  • Tickets are required to join the signing line.
  • Tickets are available to purchase in-store and via bookpeople.com
  • Tickets cost as much as the price of one copy of Forgetting to Be Afraid plus tax.
  • Each ticket grants access to the signing line for ONE person and will be exchanged for ONE signed copy of Forgetting to Be Afraid at the signing table the day of the event.
  • There is a limit of one ticket/book per person.
  • The line for the signing will form first come, first served the day of the event.
  • Books will not be personalized.
  • Photos will not be allowed at the signing table.
  • No memorabilia will be signed at this event.

    • No talk, no photos, no personalization. It’s like it’s a privilege to be in the same room as her. And if I know Bookpeople, plenty of autographed copies will be available the next day for purchase, sans ticket.

    I know for a fact that such rules were not in place for signings there by Neil Gaiman or Neal Stephenson (both of whom, I’d estimate, are considerably more famous that Wendy Davis). Indeed, the “no personalization/no photo” rules were not even in place for Hillary Clinton’s signing there.

    Why does a failing gubernatorial candidate merit more high-and-mighty treatment than a former Secretary of State, First Lady and losing Presidential candidate?

    If I had to guess, it would be that her handlers are scared to death she’ll make a gaffe…

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    Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections, Texas | No Comments »

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