Ulster Co. special election recommendation

There will be a special election for Ulster Co. Executive on Tuesday, April 30th.

The choice is between Democrat Pat Ryan and Conservative Jack Hayes. The Republicans could not put up their own candidate and are backing Hayes.

Ryan is an antigun ideologue.

Hayes does not have a record on the issue that I am aware of. He was rated ? by NRA for his previous bid for State Assembly in 2016.

Considering Ryan’s public statements on 2A, Hayes is the better choice for gun owners although I expect Ryan is going to walk all over him in the election. Hayes does not have a functioning website and has not filed any fundraising paperwork with the BoE.  Turnout will be low so an upset is not inconceivable.

Giffords targets Faso

The Times Union reports:

“… Gabby Giffords is setting her sights on U.S. Rep. John Faso. The political arm of Giffords, a group launched by the former Arizona congresswoman to address gun violence in America, identified the Kinderhook Republican as one of 12 candidates, all Republicans, to defeat in November. Faso is the only New York candidate on the list …”

Good choice for them. I’m still surprised he won back in ’16. And I have not not forgotten about Faso’s support for strict controls and regulations on handguns.”

Here is their ad:

Time to collect

The Donald and Mike Pence both spoke at the NRA convention giving good, red meat speeches.

During Sen. John Cornyn’s address he mentioned that he is the Senate sponsor of the reciprocity bill S.446, which has been sitting quietly since it’s introduction last year.  The only recent action has been the addition of newly elected Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith as the 40th co-sponsor.

This proposal has been floating around for more than 20 years.  There is nothing left to discuss about it.  It is time for NRA to give Trump and Mitch McConnell an ultimatum: Bring S.446 to the floor for a straight up or down vote or don’t come around asking for handouts this November.  Whether it passes or not there needs to be a recorded vote on the bill.  Republicans owe NRA big time and with NRA’s membership approaching 6 million it is time to collect.

Remington layoffs

Remington has laid-off 122 people at the Ilion plant.

Despite what Bob Owens says, it is probably not due to the SAFE Act. The gun industry has been slowing down since the election.

Enter Trump

The Donald was sworn in yesterday as President.  The relief at getting rid of Obama and Hillary has worn off and the reality that Cheeto Jesus is now Commander in Chief has set in.

I was not impressed with his inauguration speech.  It was populism, not principle like Ronald Reagan’s.  Nevertheless, now we’re going to see if Trump is going to live up to his promises.  This is now on the White House website:

Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community

“… Supporting law enforcement means supporting our citizens’ ability to protect themselves. We will uphold Americans’ Second Amendment rights at every level of our judicial system …”

Knowing this, I will consider Trump’s 2A promise kept if we get this:

  1. A reciprocity law.
  2. One good justice on SCOTUS.

If he really wants to Make America Great Again I’ll add the following:

  1. Remove silencers from the NFA.
  2. Two good justices on SCOTUS.

If Trump wants America, Fuck Yeah! add this:

  1. Repeal the Hughes Amendment.

H/T: Miguel.

The fix was in

Sen. Jim Tedisco admits the obvious:

“… Tedisco said he was impressed by what he described as the governor’s candor about their partisan differences. He recalled that someone in the room noted to Cuomo that he had campaigned against a few members of the chamber’s GOP conference in the most recent election cycle. “(Cuomo) said, ‘You can’t call that campaigning,’” Tedisco said — a sentiment sure to warm the hearts of the Senate’s mainline Democratic conference. The governor “mentioned he had $19 million in the bank (for his campaign committee),” Tedisco added. “He mentioned he could use that money very aggressively, and that he didn’t. He mentioned he could have done a lot more in terms of campaigning ….””

Republicans shouldn’t be laughing about this.  They won because Cuomo chose not to use his resources against them.  There is no way he did this out of the goodness of his heart.  Cuomo expects something in return, most likely that the Republicans support his agenda.  Cuomo’s agenda does not include modifying the SAFE Act.

A minority majority

John Brooks has defeated incumbent Michael Venditto in SD-8 giving the Democrats a numeric majority of 32 seats in the State Senate.

Because Simcha Felder will continue to caucus with the Republicans, and because the rest of the Democrats don’t have their shit together, the GOP will maintain nominal control of the upper chamber.

First antigun pushback

There was much noise in the media after the election about the NRA advancing a pro-gun agenda in the new Congress including reciprocity.

Here is the first pushback on that I’ve seen:

“… Democrats have vowed to make sure that should a national reciprocity agreement surface in the senate, they will filibuster until it’s dead. Peter Ambler, executive director of Americans for Responsible Solutions, a gun control super PAC, said his organization plans to fight national reciprocity “tooth and nail,” threatening a Democratic filibuster of the legislation in the SenateConnecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat and ardent gun-control advocate, said he believes any version of a national reciprocity bill would be “dead on arrival” in the Senate, due to strong Democratic opposition …”

Here is where Trump will get a chance to back up his rhetoric with action. According to Mike Pence, Trump is planning “ambitious” 100 and 200 day agendas to fulfill his core campaign promises. He needs to publicly say reciprocity is on his agenda.

Minus one

With all the ballots counted, John Brooks leads incumbent Senator Michael Venditto by 41 votes.

If seated, Long Island would have two Democrat Senators for the first time in decades.  Republicans are not willing accept this and will take it to court because, quite frankly, they have nothing else going for them.

Even if Brooks ultimately prevails the Republicans will still have a majority of 32 seats because Simcha Felder said he would continue to caucus with them.

Correction: Democrats did have two Senators from Long Island in ’09-’10. Brooks and Todd Kaminsky would be the first two from Nassau in a long time.

Surprise

Apparently even the Trump campaign didn’t think they were going to win:

“… The best data inside the Trump campaign and the RNC had Donald Trump’s chances of winning the presidency as a one-in-five proposition … RNC staffers thought Trump would win 240 Electoral College votes, 30 short of the 270 needed to win … The best data inside the Trump campaign was just as pessimistic …”

Amazing. Even more surprising is that turnout was down a bit this election:

Guess this explains why Hillary didn’t give a concession speech Tuesday night. She didn’t have one prepared.