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NRA refuses to endorse Reid or Angle in U.S. Senate race
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STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Updated: Sep. 11, 2010 | 3:29 p.m.
WASHINGTON -- The National Rifle Association said Friday that it is staying out of the heated U.S. Senate race in Nevada, declining to endorse Sen. Harry Reid or his Republican challenger Sharron Angle.
The powerful gun lobby said it would not back Reid because of his votes in favor of Supreme Court nominees Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor over the past two years -- justices the NRA believes will be hostile to gun owners in cases involving the Second Amendment.
An NRA spokesman said the organization will not be backing Angle either. "We will not be making any endorsement in the Nevada Senate race," said Andrew Arulanandam, the group's public affairs director.
Arulanandam declined to comment further on Angle, referring questions to a statement the group posted to its website. The statement is silent on Angle, but expressed "grave concerns" about the Kagan confirmation, which Reid shepherded as Senate majority leader.
"The vote on Elena Kagan's confirmation to the court, along with the previous year's confirmation vote on Sonia Sotomayor, are critical for the future of the Second Amendment," Christopher Cox, the chairman of the NRA's Political Victory Fund, said in the posting.
"After careful consideration, the NRA-PVF announced today that it will not be endorsing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for re-election in the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Nevada," Cox said.
The announcement caps months of internal NRA debate and strong reactions from among its 4.3 million members over whether to back Reid, a Democrat who has positioned himself as a friend to gun owners but who also had provoked opposition from the NRA's largely Republican-leaning membership.
The decision to stay on the sidelines of one of the nation's most crucial races -- while risking the wrath of the snubbed Senate leader -- was seen as evidence of a strong pushback from the NRA's rank-and-file after the idea of a Reid endorsement was floated a few months ago.
Reid, who owns several guns including an antique .22 rifle from his childhood, had courted the NRA, and its official blessing would have helped him shore up support in rural Nevada, said Danny Gonzales, a political science professor at Great Basin College in Elko.
"I considered it to be a significant endorsement," Gonzales said. "The NRA's clout is significant when you have a close race."
Once it decided not to endorse Reid, the NRA was probably smart to stay on the sidelines altogether, Gonzales said, or risk further angering the Senate leader.
Mark Peplowski, a professor at the College of Southern Nevada, said he doubted Reid will suffer damage.
"I don't think it is going to be a big hit on him," Peplowski said. "I tend to feel the people who vote the NRA way are those who would fall into the Tea Party camp anyway. They would probably be on the fence or lean to Angle."
Speculation that the NRA might endorse Reid created such an outcry that the organization set up a special message on its telephone system inviting callers to "press one" if they were calling about Reid. The message, which had not been updated on Friday afternoon, told callers the NRA had not yet decided on an endorsement.
A separate gun-rights organization, the more hard line Gun Owners of America, endorsed Angle, and gave Reid an "F" rating. The Angle campaign had set up a website with a compilation of Reid "anti-gun" votes taken between 1991 and 2005.
The votes included support for various gun controls, a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and criminal background checks on transactions at large gun shows.
"It comes as no surprise that the NRA would refuse to endorse Senator Harry Reid," Angle campaign spokesman Jerry Stacy said. "Senator Reid has a lengthy record of voting for measures that are anti-Second Amendment, and his recent support for Elena Kagan was a constant reminder that the Second Amendment remains in serious jeopardy under Senator Reid's leadership."
But the NRA leadership and Reid had enjoyed a mutually supportive relationship in recent years. In July 2009, the organization leaders penned a "Dear Nevada NRA Member" letter urging gun owners to contact Reid "and thank him for supporting our gun rights."
The organization said Reid was instrumental in the 2005 passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which prevented firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable for crimes committed with their products. Along the way he voted against amendments to ban assault weapons and most hunting ammunition, it said.
In 2009, Reid voted to repeal a gun ban in the District of Columbia, and to allow citizens to carry guns in the national parks, according to the NRA.
Last August, NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre stood by Reid at the dedication of a $61 million Clark County gun range, a showcase for which Reid had obtained federal funding.
"He is a true champion of the Second Amendment back in Washington, D.C.," LaPierre said of Reid at the event.
In floating the idea the NRA might endorse Reid, Cox earlier this year pointed out that if Reid were defeated, the new Senate leader might be Dick Durbin, D-Ill., or Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., both of whom are less supportive of the group's agenda than the Nevadan.
On Friday, Reid's campaign manager Brandon Hall pointed to LaPierre's praise, and also a $4,950 contribution the NRA had given to Reid, as evidence he remains a favorite of the gun lobby despite the lack of a formal endorsement.
"The NRA's relationship with Senator Reid has been long-standing and productive and -- unlike for Sharron Angle -- they've put their money where their mouth is this cycle," Hall said.
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The largest gap in Gallup's history for tracking the midterm generic ballot's for Congress--gives Republicans--a 10 point lead.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/142718/GOP-Unprecedented-Lead-Generic-Ballot.aspx
unbelievable wrote: “@Alvinjh, and/or anyone else...could you do me a favor? Please list for me the reasons why I should vote for Sharon Angle...without mentioning Reid.” A vote for Sharon Angle is a vote for a basic course correction from our current path to become another failed European Socialistic State. A vote for Sharon Angle is a vote to allow the country to chart a course that will take us back to America’s past success as being a sanctuary for an individual’s right to freedom and liberty. It is a vote for people to earn and use their own earned wealth, and it is a vote against a mob rule democracy type government who forces a re-distribution of the people’s wealth, based on need and the purchase of votes. It is a vote for the Classic Liberalism of the past, and it is a vote against the Marxist, Fascist leaning of our 20th century government.
Americans are utterly outraged at the ongoing transformation of the freest, bravest, wealthiest and most exceptional nation on earth into just one more European-style, socialist welfare state. Do you support the $850 billion stimulus package Obama passed last year? Reid voted yes. Sharron Angle says no. The TARP bailout? Reid, yes, Angle no Cap and Trade? Reid backs it. Angle is opposed. Obamacare? Reid pushed it through. Angle says repeal it. On the issues that really matter, Reid is wrong, wrong, wrong." VOTE REID OUT - He has pushed this failed Ideology too long. Even the NRA knows that REID, even after 24 years in the senate - is the WRONG person. It is past time for him to Go. Vote REID out. The church lady will fight for what is right - fight for American Values and Principles.
What is coming--the inflation cycle is still ahead of us. Its going to be very ugly for a long time. The was between the factions will not get any better either. But with with conservatives we will at least begin to put in place some restraints that may over time help us begin to recover. The libs have yet to acknowledge that there is even a problem yet. That is the way of things. Ideology over any practical course is their way. Its up to people with some sense of how things work to get things moving again. The whackos have been in charge for 2 years and they have made an enormous mess of things. Always in the name of the greater good of course. And fairness. And openness (except when dealing with people they can't control or disagree with. The only thing to do is VOTE them out, roll up the sleeves and get started rebuilding the economy. And don't let them back in power for a very, very long time. VOTE
unbelievable--vote for Reid. Your kinda guy I'm thinking.
@Alvinjh, and/or anyone else...could you do me a favor? Please list for me the reasons why I should vote for Sharon Angle...without mentioning Reid. Please also explain the changes in her pre-primary positions on the issues. I am finding it very difficult to find reasons to vote for her...although I know most posts on here say I should just because she is "not Reid". But I believe she should actually be qualified. There should be reasons FOR her...not just AGAINST Reid. So if someone can give me those reasons, please do. Right now I do not see any answers from the Tea Party/Republicans...everything that comes from them is just AGAINST the Dems. They are truly earning their label of the "Party of NO"...and it is very frustrating. I want some substance. And it is EXTREMELY frustrating that the ones that the Repubs and Tea Partiers are pushing are Palin and Angle. I've given up on anyone giving me reasons to support Palin...maybe someone can give me some reasons for Angle.
Hey Timekeeper, I think you need to address this to the failed republican party, Angle included. They are the real cause of the dismantling of the nation.
Timekeeper wrote on August 28, 2010 07:58 PM:
Americans are utterly outraged at the ongoing transformation of the freest, bravest, wealthiest and most exceptional nation on earth
steven.alexander writes like the kind of tolerant open minded, liberal I've come to know through long experience.
His brand of politics will always harp on being even handed and rational while harboring the deep seated and pathological hatred of anyone who thinks differently than he does. It especially offends this type of person when you answer them and actually take action and VOTE. So, help him reap the rewards he and his muppets have earned in just about 66 days.
If you like his brand of bigotry and hypocrisy, vote for the bag man of Searchlight.
If you want to send him and his ilk howling at the moon (as I do), vote for Sharon Angle.
The more they hate they more I want to point out their hatred.
Obviously she's doing something right if it drives a loon like this guy to such distraction.
SO VOTE FOLKS.
Sharoon has run her life on a single "principle" be as crazy as you can. Now, this is fine, so long as that craziness doesn't affect other people; live in squalor playing with cats, and your guns, and your lemonade just leave the rest of us out of it. Go live far away from the world, and that way no one need know that you want to take up guns to overthrow the government of the United States. Go live in a cave with the rest of the Christian Scientists who want to believe in spaceships that are coming to rescue your kind from God knows what. Live free and prosper, just do it in such fashion that you don't have to disturb the rest of the state. God's (or whoever it is you worship) speed Sharoon!
Harry Reid has run his entire campaign on a single idea--"I can buy more negative ads than you!"
This will last till the last union dollar is spent....and the last Reid attack muppet is babbling alone in the dark cursing all those people they despise who voted.
We get to make that all happen in just 66 days.
VOTE