At
Mother Jones, Hannah Levintova writes
7 Big Gun Fights to Watch on Election Day. Here's an excerpt, focusing on the first of the seven:
No election cycle in recent memory has seen the guns issue heat up the way this year's has. The National Rifle Association, continuing a long-running strategy of campaign spending, earmarked over $11 million for this year's elections—but for the first time in decades the nation's leading gun lobby is facing some truly formidable opposition. Americans for Responsible Solutions, launched by former congresswoman and mass shooting survivor Gabby Giffords, and Everytown for Gun Safety, bankrolled by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, have spent millions of their own to try to vanquish the NRA's influence. How will it play out? Here are key races to watch on Tuesday:
Washington
Spending by the NRA: $485,000
Spending by gun control groups: Everytown/Bloomberg, $2.6 million; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, $1 million. [Update: A new press release from Everytown lists their total Washington spending at $4 million.]
The showdown: In perhaps the most-watched race on guns, voters will decide on two competing ballot measures on the issue of background checks. Initiative 594 would expand background checks for gun purchases online, at gun shows, or through private transactions, closing the so-called loophole in federal law. The Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility, which is leading the campaign for I-594, has received financial support totaling more than $2.5 million from both Everytown for Gun Safety and from Bloomberg personally. Bill and Melinda Gates also gave more than $1 million.
The gun lobby counterattacked with Initiative 591, sponsored by Alan Gottlieb, president of the Washington-based Second Amendment Foundation. I-591 would prohibit the state from requiring background checks unless a "uniform national standard" for those checks is created. If passed, I-591 could create several confusing legal scenarios: This sort of state-level prohibition could contradict federal law, which already allows states to mandate additional background checks. And if both I-591 and I-594 pass, they may negate each other and lead to a protracted legal battle.
Ricochet: Speaking out against I-594 in July, the NRA's chief lobbyist in Washington state, Brian Judy, raised the specter of, what else, Nazi Germany. Referring to venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, who pledged $500,000 to back I-594 and who is Jewish, Judy said: "Now, he has put half-a-million dollars toward this policy, the same policy that led to his family getting run out of Germany by the Nazis ... It’s like any Jewish people that I meet who are anti-gun, I think, 'Are you serious? Do you not remember what happened?'" [...]
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—Dear Sarah: Nobody thinks you're qualified:
In the wake of the news that Sarah Palin will run for president if nobody else will comes a Washington Post/ABC News poll revealing that just about nobody thinks she's qualified to be president:
Sarah Palin’s interest in the presidency is not being reciprocated by most Americans: Two-thirds of registered voters in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll say she’s unqualified for the job, and more than half continue to rate her unfavorably overall.
So, run, Sarah, run. And if you wouldn't mind picking Joe Miller to be your campaign spokesman, I'm sure he'd appreciate it, given that he's going to be out of work after next Tuesday's election.
Tweet of the Day
Trust me, friends: There's no need to dress up for Halloween. Your true monster is on the inside. And anyone who loves you will know it.
— @NeinQuarterly
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show: Technical difficulties knocked out the mic this morning, but we got the better part of a show together.
Rosalyn MacGregor filled us in on the Michigan electoral horse races, newspaper endorsements, etc. House GOP's lawyers keep quitting their lawsuit against Obama. The "gimmick" economy: does anyone really make anything, any more? Verizon starts a news outlet where no reporting is allowed on net neutrality or domestic spying. Government prohibited from surveillance? Just outsource it.
Joan McCarter wraps up with the story of The
Midnight Bicycle Ride of
Paul Revere Kaci Hickox, Bobby Jindal's Ebola panic, and more.
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