For Immediate Release November 9, 2006
Contact: Tom Jardim (908) 917-7665 Bryan Miller (856) 371-3038
GUN LOBBY SUFFERS HUGE TUESDAY DEFEAT NATIONALLY AND STATEWIDE
NRA-Backed Candidates Lose Big Across Nation, NJ Voters Continue Support of Candidates Favoring Strengthening Gun Laws
Trenton: In a rebuke to the accepted wisdom embraced on Washington’s Capitol Hill, candidates supported by the gun lobby went down to defeat Tuesday in unprecedented numbers. According to a tabulation by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, over 100 candidates for the US House of Representatives and 18 candidates for the US Senate given ‘A’ ratings by the National Rifle Association (NRA) went down to defeat. Pre-election statements by the NRA Political Victory Fund that it “could be headed for our biggest election disaster in nearly 15 years” if Democrats were to take control of one or both Houses of Congress proved prescient, as gun lobby money could not save enough pro-gun candidates to avert disaster.
“New Jersey voters,” said Tom Jardim, Board Chair of Ceasefire NJ, the state’s leading organization devoted to reducing gun violence, “continued the long-held tradition of supporting candidates favoring strong and effective measures to keep guns out of the wrong hands.” He pointed to the re-election of US Senator Bob Menendez and US Representatives Rob Andrews, Chris Smith, Frank Pallone, Mike Ferguson, Bill Pascrell, Steve Rothman, Donald Payne and Rush Holt, all with strong gun violence prevention credentials, most endorsed by Ceasefire NJ.
Bryan Miller, Ceasefire NJ Executive Director, said: “The gun lobby had convinced the Bush Administration and the leadership of the current US Congress that weakening our nation’s gun laws would not put them in electoral danger. The debacle suffered on Tuesday by pro-gun federal and state candidates across the country should send elected officials and party strategists back to the drawing board. The myth that the gun lobby is a vote getting monolith was decisively chucked into the trash can on Tuesday.”
Miller cited specific races where candidates who embraced positions favoring stronger gun violence prevention succeeded over those backed with gun lobby money, including:
~Deval Patrick, Governor-elect of Massachusetts, a landslide winner, whose opponent was endorsed by the MA affiliate of the NRA;
~Ed Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania, another landslide victor, who led during debates with demands for stronger Keystone State gun laws;
~Martin O’Malley, Governor-elect of Maryland, a long-time supporter of gun violence prevention, who defeated an incumbent Governor who had sought to weaken the state’s gun laws;
~Jim Doyle, Governor of Wisconsin, who twice vetoed bills to allow the concealed carrying of handguns in public and was subject to the gun lobby’s failed ‘Dump Doyle’ campaign; and
~Rod Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois, who tied his campaign to enactment of a state assault weapons ban in his second term.
Dozens of federal candidates supported assiduously by the gun lobby lost as well, including Senators George Allen of Virginia, Jim Talent of Missouri and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, as well as Reps Melissa Hart and Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.
