All about guns, legislation and politics in New York
A thought occurred to me:
In the wake of SCOTUS upholding Obamacare, do “moderate” Democrats advance pro-gun legislation, including H.R. 822 in the Senate, in an attempt to defuse voter anger directed towards them and lessen the political fallout in the November elections?
Something to think about.
Two local Democrats who have been friendly towards gun rights voted in favor of the Eric Holder contempt resolution, Bill Owens and Kathy Hochul.
NRA announced that they would count the vote towards each reps. ratings, but according to the Democrat & Chronicle that did not affect Hochul’s decision:
“… Hochul said the fact that the National Rifle Association had made the contempt vote part of its scorecard for lawmakers did not play a role in her decision. She said she had “no idea’’ what her NRA rating is. “I haven’t checked to see if I have been rated,’’ she said …”
The House voted to hold Eric Holder in contempt of Congress by a mostly partisan vote of 255-67. Congresswoman Kathy Hochul was one of a handful of Democrats to vote in favor of the charge. Congressman Richard Hanna posted the reason for his vote on his Facebook page.
Results from Tuesdays Congressional primaries:
Republicans pick their candidate for Senate in Tuesday’s primary. Turnout is expected to be low and every vote counts. The choices are:
Long’s campaign will be doing robocalls featuring Tom to 100K+ “sportsmen” today and tomorrow in a GOTV effort.
Legislative Report #23 is online. This is probably the last update for the year as the legislature is in recess. There is always the possibility of a day or two special session in the fall, but for all practical purposes we’re done for the year.
The official vote for the A-1157B was 85-60. The vote on A-1157A last year was 84-55. All several weeks worth of (mostly) antigun commentary in support of microstamping got the antis was a few more votes against it including Democrat Kevin Cahill who switched his vote to No.
Micorstamping bill A-1157B pased the Assembly by an unofficial vote of 79-52 after roughly 2.5 hours of debate. The Assembly’s web server overloaded early on as people tried watching the live feed. Michelle Schimel had to be reprimanded twice by acting speaker Peter Rivera for her near hysterical behavior when questioned by Marc Butler and Dan Burling. Archived copies of the floor discussion should be available online in the next few days along with the final vote sheet.
Some rumormongering about Mayor Mike making a presidential endorsement:
“… Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York has remained coy about whether he plans to endorse a presidential candidate this year … during casual conversations at charity event a few days ago, Mr. Bloomberg was far chattier — and candid — about the subject, according to three people who overheard him … he could not support Mr. Romney because he disagreed with him on so many social issues, these two people said. The mayor mentioned two such issues: abortion rights and gun control …”
This non-endorsement can only help Romney who gunnies already have reservations about.