I can’t recall NRA doing this in previous years, but maybe they did and I just didn’t notice. It’s a good idea to explain. A lot of people might question their incumbent friendly policy, but all you have to do is look at this to understand why that’s the case. That’s why John McCain gets an NRA endorsement over J.D. Hayworth. Endorsements and grades are political tools. They aren’t an affirmation of faith that many people would like them to be. If Hayworth wins, he’ll enjoy the same incumbent friendly policy that McCain currently enjoys.
11 thoughts on “NRA Explains Its Endorsement Policy”
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While I understand it, and in Harry Reid’s case think it makes a lot of sense, I’m bummed about McCain. Like I said, I understand- but as an Arizonan I honestly don’t know if I wanted to be free of McCain or Napolitano more. And the though of going 0 for 2 in that is depressing.
Your link to re-election stats is misleading. McCain is in a primary where you’ll typically only get 10-15% of the party faithful to come out and vote. It is much easier to knock out an incumbent in a primary because such a small percentage of the overall population will turn out on election day.
The problem I have with the McCain lovefest that the NRA has been having for a couple of years is the fact that they have ignored about all of the literature against him that they have turned out for the better part of a decade. Don’t they think we remember or keep back issues? Wayne LaPierre once accused McCain of being the “point man for the anti 1st and anti 2nd amendment efforts.” Now Wayne flip-flopped faster than a Massachusetts politician on the matter and praised him in 2008 as a decades long 2nd amendment activist. WTF?
For years the NRA blasted McCain over his campaign finance nonsense saying that it was aimed specifically at destroying the NRA as well as the 1st Amendment. They have also spent countless hours and dollars fighting McCains pet gunshow closure efforts yet became strangely silent on both topics in 2008. Only after the election did the NRA revive their opposition to both issues.
I understand the incumbent reward system and have defended it in plenty of elections past. But the McCain reach-around b.s. has got to stop.
Except since those votes in 2002 and 2004, McCain has voted against reauthorizing the “assault weapons” ban, for right to carry in national parks and wildlife refuges, for interstate reciprocity of right to carry permits, for the protection of lawful commerce in arms act, to prohibit gun confiscation during states of emergency, such as occurred after Hurricane Katrina, to allow gun owners to check firearms in their luggage on Amtrak trains, voted to restore the Second Amendment rights of DC residents, cosponsored every bill NRA asked him to and signed to congressional amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court in the Heller and McDonald cases.
But I suppose they should probably just ignore that.
They could of just not endoresed either until after the primary. Then they would not be getting all this negative reaction to it. To be honest I have yet to even make my decision on this primary yet. I’m still leaning towards JD.
Campaign finance and the “gun show loophole” crap he has supported before pisses me off. And he should figure out by now the people don’t want it and if he says he’s “Arizona’s last line of defense” he should start acting like it and listen to his constituents.
I wonder if the NRA will make the new bill, the one that would make NRA membership lists public one that effects there grade of that person.
If you’re going to maintain an incumbent friendly policy, that necessitates helping the incumbent out when he might think he’s vulnerable. McCain has been willing to go to bat for us for the important stuff in his past term. If Hayworth bumps him off, he’ll enjoy the same consideration when he’s the incumbent.
Is there really anyone who is going to vote for McCain or Harry Reid simply because the NRA told them to?
Probably. A lot of people are single issue voters and look to NRA to understand what candidates are with them.
The Ohio Gubernatorial contest will be interesting. We have the incumbent which is a NRA A+ rated leftist going up against a Republican that thought the Assault Weapons ban was a good enough idea to vote for. I wonder who will get the NRA endorsement? I would think it would be the A rated commie incumbent. At least it should be.
Mike, I couldn’t have said it better. We have to look at the whole of the record.
Looking at a local perspective, NRA-ILA was convinced to endorse a challenger in a 2003 VA State Senate Primary over an incumbant that had been with us most of the time but opposed us on a couple of recent occassions. What made it worse, the challenger had run and lost in a primary race for Congress in 2000 as a supporter of the Clinton Gun Ban.
He was changing his tune for the 2003 Primary. What did it get us? The challenger lost big, the incumbant took it personally and screwed us for the next six years.
Dave, that is a poor example. A mediocre candidate with a mediocre record up against an experienced incumbent tends to lose regardless of their stance on the issues. In this case, Hayworth is an experienced candidate and his overall record is better than McCain’s.