May 10, 2002
Some Democratic Candidates Try to Outrun Anti-Gun Shadow
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
Gun Week and other publications have taken note over time of the fact that the gun issue seems to be causing a fair amount of grief for the Democratic Party nationally.
In a nutshell, the situation is this: while there are some pro-gun Democrats who win in their districts, their party’s national platform, and its high-profile office holders seem wedded to embracing any anti-gun, anti-self-defense scheme that comes down the pike. And even some Democrat leaders, including ex-President Bill Clinton, admit that has caused them some elections, and certainly control of the House of Representatives in 1994.
But the anti-gun Democrats refuse to give up on their agenda because it pleases many of the richest and most rabid members of their party—meaning the people who vote in primaries and provide the most funds.
So while some Democrats want to abandon, or at least soft-pedal, the gun issue, they can’t outrun its shadow. And making things worse are people like Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), who seems determined to have a gun issue vote before this year’s election.
Gun Show Showdown
According to Sam MacDonald, writing in Insight magazine, Conyers “brims with confidence when he talks about the gun control proposal he introduced in the House on March 20.”
At a press conference to unveil the measure, he predicted that the Gun Show Background Check Act of 2002 (HR-4034) will not be an issue in the November elections because it already will have passed. His confidence in this major expansion of gun control stems from the willingness of many Americans to accept infringements on constitutional proscriptions after Sept. 11.
“Now we’ve got the terrorist issue,” Conyers says in response to a question from Insight. “There are very few in the general population who are going to tolerate a loophole through which these weapons are allowed into the war to support terrorism. That is a no-brainer at this point.”
But, unfortunately for those who share Conyers’ view, infighting within the gun-control ranks has been doing more to damage his bill’s chances than anything the National Rifle Association (NRA) can muster, MacDonald pointed out.
Conyers says his proposal requires tighter limits on sales at gun shows than does the McCain-Lieberman bill. Conyers and his supporters say they prefer a bill introduced by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), which advocates gun show restrictions closer to the Conyers proposal and does not include funding for Project Exile. When asked how he thought the Senate would proceed, Conyers deferred to an aide who said Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) has promised to consider the Reed bill first. The aide says he expects McCain-Lieberman will come into play “only if the Reed bill doesn’t pass, which it will.”
As the anti-gun Democrats debate the merits of their competing bills, the public keeps being reminded that the top layer of the party is more akin to Conyers than a pro-gun Democrat like his colleague Rep. John Dingell (D-MI). And the Democrats who get the most media attention all seem to be anti-gunners.
Dodd May Run
Anti-gun Connecticut Democrat Sen. Christopher Dodd, son of the late Sen. Tom Dodd, is reportedly mulling a run for the White House in 2004.
During his Senate career, the elder Dodd had been on the forefront of the gun control movement, and was seen as the most rabidly anti-gun member of the Democratic caucus, and one of the architects of the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Chris Dodd is a chip off the old block, and according to Roll Call’s April 3 edition, he may be considering a challenge to President George W. Bush. However, he is not tipping his hand this early in the game, and even if he did, he would be facing a pretty crowded field of fellow Democrats.
Several other congressional Democrats, all anti-gunners, are also looking at the presidential race in 2004. Names that keep popping up include: Sens. Tom Daschle (SD); John Kerry (MA); Joe Lieberman (CT); John Edwards (NC), and Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY), along with former Vice President Al Gore, Rep. Richard Gephardt (MO), and California Gov. Gray Davis.
If that weren’t enough, The Washington Post says two-term-limited Gov. Parris Glendening of Maryland is positioning himself for bigger things on the national scene, which suggests he may be interested in the Democratic presidential or vice presidential nod.
Meanwhile, several members of the Clinton Cabinet or White House staff are also running for high federal or state officers.
Top Clinton advisor Rahm Emanuel has his party’s nomination to fill the Illinois House seat vacated by the gubernatorial run of Rep. Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) this year. Blagojevich may be more anti-gun than Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), if such a thing is possible, and expects to make gun control a major platform in his campaign to unseat the Republican incumbent, Gov. George Ryan.
In Massachusetts, former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich is running for governor and will not disappoint the anti-gunners either.
In Florida, former Attorney General Janet Reno’s vaunted campaign to unseat Gov. Jeb Bush and become governor of Florida is coming unfrayed.
According to an April 12 report at National Review Online, Reno has been losing ground as her campaign lost momentum, drawing small crowds at appearances, and suffering after she collapsed on stage during a speech in Rochester, NY, in January.
Another strike against Reno is that Florida residents have long memories and recall that she sent heavily-armed US Marshals to seize Elian Gonzales at MP5-point and send him back to Cuba after his mother drowned while bringing him to this country. And the report also said many Floridians recall Reno’s handling of the assault on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, TX, in 1993.
Once the darling of Democrat fund-raisers, Reno is now in a full-throttle battle just to get the nomination—a battle that promises to bruise whoever is the ultimate challenger to Bush.
Previously unknown Tampa lawyer Bill McBride, who has never held public office, is piling up endorsements with his “worker-friendly” rhetoric and proposals to open the spigot on state-government spending for health care and public schools. He has been campaigning full-time on these core Democratic issues and it has paid off.
In January, the Florida Education Association, with its 120,000 members, stunned political watchers when it endorsed no-name McBride. Several smaller, independent teacher associations—such as the 30,000-member United Teachers of Dade—also publicly backed McBride. And in a further blow, the 500,000-member AFL-CIO endorsed McBride in March. His campaign has now attained the critical mass of credibility needed to attract real money backing.
This partly stems from McBride courting establishment Democrat support, while Reno’s been tooling around the state in her little red pickup truck to rustle up grassroots support. Even The Miami Herald has noted that union endorsements are evidence that “the Democratic Party establishment is leery of a Reno candidacy.”
Even Reno’s own confidence isn’t what it was. She recently declared that she is determined to win via the grassroots approach and added: “Maybe I can’t do that, but I’m sure going to try.” Without a spark of momentum and with most of the race still ahead, it’s not a good sign.
And, of course, there is Clinton’s former secretary of housing and urban development, Andrew Cuomo, who is hoping to defeat the man who unseated his father eight years ago. Young Cuomo formally kicked off his campaign for Democratic nomination for governor on April 15.
Cuomo’s wife, by the way, is Kerrey Kennedy Cuomo, daughter of the late New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and he can probably count on a lot of support from the Kennedy dynasty. But Cuomo still must defeat state Comptroller H. Carl McCall for the Democratic nomination before he can challenge Pataki’s expected third-term bid.
Before the Democrats can count on winning many seats in the Senate and House by jettisoning some of their national anti-gun, anti-self-defense rhetoric, they are going to have to deal with the open hostility to guns exhibited by people like their front-runners, and, of course, Conyers.