In what I considered a Rush to Judgement, Daily Kos on 6/13/14 endorsed Ruben Gallego for the 7th District Congressional Seat being vacated by Ed Pastor, who has already endorsed his far more-experienced opponent, Mary Rose Wilcox. Mary Rose was also recently endorsed by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Congress' foremost proponent of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Given Mary Rose's longtime leadership on this issue and her courageous stand against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Gutierrez' endorsement did not come as a huge surprise.
What was noteworthy, however, was that Congressman Gutierrez praised not only Mary Rose's stance on immigration and her steadfast opposition to racial profiling, but also her longtime opposition to gun violence.
Among the first bills he proposed were those limiting the production of Semi-Automatics and 'Saturday Night Specials', as he confronted Gun Violence in his home city of Chicago.
Similarly, Mary Rose initiated and Championed Gun Buyback programs in the 1980's, in 1996 and 1998, and again in 2012, as the Arizona Legislature was busy passing SB1241, an NRA-Sponsored piece of legislation that mandated that weapons seized in crimes be sold to Gun Dealers rather than be destroyed. Ruben voted for and supported that bill, as he has several others put forward by the NRA in recent years. A former NRA Member, he enjoyed a 75% Rating from the Gun Lobby in 2012.
That same year, he supported HB2640, which removed limits on the size of magazines for hunting rifles. Even worse---the year before, immediately on the heels of the horrendous Mass Shooting in Tucson that left a bloody and deadly trail and nearly claimed the life of Rep. Gaby Giffords, he voted for HB2645, again an NRA product, that would permit Mentally Ill persons who had been prohibited from firearm possession to regain that privilege.
These are strange priorities for a man who would now wrap himself in the cloak of a "Commonsense Gun Law Reformer." This pattern of supporting NRA-sponsored Gun Legislation would be remarkable under any circumstances, but is even more noteworthy when you know that, in three years and two months in the Arizona Legislature, initiated and passed not one single bill. Not one.
In stark contrast, Mary Rose Wilcox' record is one of longstanding and consistent support of commonsense gun regulation and background checks. She supports background checks in all cases, including gun shows, is in favor of limited magazine sizes, particularly on semi-automatic weapons, and supports bans on AK-47's and similar assault-type weapons. She also stands in firm opposition to Stand Your Ground Laws and similar bills that expand the permissible use of deadly force.
The contrast is striking, both in the consistency and transparency of the two candidates' stand on these critical issues, and on which side of the NRA Fence they choose to stand.
Their positions, I believe, reveal important differences between these two candidates. For this reason and many others, I personally find Mary Rose Wilcox to be a preferable and far more trustworthy candidate.