Bitter asks in the previous post about whether Specter will want to keep his A-rating from the NRA. Specter is politically weak, and NRA is a good ally to have in your corner in Pennsylvania, even if your a Democrat. I don’t think he can afford to piss off the NRA right now. But it’s actually a bit of an issue for Bitter and I if he keeps his endorsement.
The issue is, we’ve yet to have an endorsed Democrat running for any office. This makes it a lot easier for us to work through the GOP, instead of the individual campaigns, in order to provide support for our endorsed candidates. When we had ourselves and our volunteers manning phone banks this past election, it was through the Republican Federal Committee of Pennsylvania. The calls were going out to benefit all the federal candidates in our district, all of whom happened to be endorsed, and all of whom were Republicans. We didn’t have to choose between who we lent our time to. We could shill for all them at the same time working through the GOP.
If in 2010, Specter wins the NRA endorsement as a Democrat, we’ll have to go back to working through the individual campaigns at the federal level. As much as I hate Arlen Specter on several other issues, and will loathe having to volunteer for him, it’s my commitment in my role as a volunteer to help NRA deliver the votes to their endorsed candidates. I take that seriously, because when endorsed candidates lose, it feeds the perception, currently being molded by our illustrious Governor, that NRA endorsements don’t help you in Pennsylvania. So as much as I hate Arlen Specter as a citizen, as an NRA election volunteer, I’ll help him out if he wins the endorsement.
It’s times like this I wish I had some pro-gun Dems who wanted to help out candidates. That way I wouldn’t have to get my hands dirty with Arlen. If he wins the Democratic primary, I do hope I can recruit some pro-gun Dems who want to help him out. I want Specter to stay true to his current A-rating, because it would better to have two candidates fighting over the gun vote than not. But if Specter goes down in the Dem primary, I can’t say I’ll be all that disappointed. I’d like to be able to throw my support fully behind Pat Toomey.
As much as the thought of having to help out Specter in 2010 bothers me, you don’t win friends in politics by throwing them off the boat at the first sign of rough seas. In politics, you don’t always get good choices. It’s not a game for people who prefer things to be black and white, and the choices to be easy.
