Sen Brian Schatz (D-HI) has a new ad out emphasizing his support for the assault weapons ban. Senator Schatz has long supported the ban and signed on as an original cosponsor almost a year and a half ago in January 2013. Senator Feinstein introduced S.150 that January in response to the Newtown massacre.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy quickly introduced the companion bill, HR437 that same January 2013. The House bill had 80 cosponsors by September 18, 2013. It added another when Rep. Clark won her special election and joined the Senate. Except for that, no action for eight long months.
Did Rep Colleen Hanabusa (Senator Schatz's election opponent) sign on to the ban?
Nope.
She was too busy doing favors for her military contractor donors by, among other things, agitating for more money to go into "defense" - even more than President Obama asked for. Perhaps her defense contractor donors asked her not to sign on to the assault weapons ban?
Last week (April 30, 2014) Sen Schatz unveiled his new ad calling for the assault weapon ban.
Yesterday (May 6, 2014), Rep. Hanabusa had a sudden change of heart!
She joined the McCarthy bill for unexplained reasons (no press release). From this chronology, it appears pretty clear that Rep. Hanabusa joined the McCarthy bill only after Sen. Schatz began running his ad advocating for an assault weapons ban.
Interesting to see that Newtown apparently was not enough motivation for her but Sen. Schatz's add got her to act.
Who says campaign ads don't work?