Gun Politics New York

Joe Lhota brought up the gun issue:

“Addressing a group of Tea Party members on Staten Island, Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota called for a streamlining of the city’s gun permit system, saying it should be “fair and speedy.”  “The city of New York, though, goes to an extreme with their, bureaucracy is not even strong enough of a word. It’s almost a level of harassment at a certain point and it needs to change,” Lhota says at the April 25 meeting on Staten Island. “There’s something that should be fair and speedy about being able to get a gun permit.” …”

Bill de Blasio was astounded by this:

“… “I was astounded to hear Mr. Lhota talk about how we can make gun access easier. I found that entirely out of step with the views of the people of New York City. We’re having a searing debate over gun control right now, particularly in the wake of the Newtown tragedy,” de Blasio told reporters, saying he agrees with Mayor Bloomberg on many weapons-regs issues …”

With a more than 3-1 lead in the polls, de Blasio is going to squash Lhota like a bug.  There is a small silver lining to this:

“Bill de Blasio … said Thursday that one of the first things he’d do as mayor is fire Taxi & Limousine Commissioner David Yassky …”

Yassky wrote the Brady Law.  He ended up at the TLC after his humiliating loss back in ’09.  With less than a month to go befote the election, we’ll soon find out if de Blasio will keep his word.

Here’s Noam Bramson proudly touting his endorsement from New Yorkers Against Gun Violence:

As far as I can tell, the only media attention this has received is at The Daily Voice. The Journal News didn’t bother covering it and they hate guns.

By contrast, gun endorsements receive coverage at the Schenectady Daily Gazette, Buffalo News, Register-Star and The Saratogian.

Update: The Journal News finally got around to mentioning it.

Mayor Mike is spending big to help Corey Booker win a special election in New Jersey:

“… As his allies move to shore up what was supposed to be a painless path to Congress, the biggest and wealthiest of them, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, will start spending more than $1 million on Monday to broadcast television commercials on Mr. Booker’s behalf, a vast sum to pour into a single candidacy …”

That’s more than the $350,000 he put into the Colorado recall, but the NYC media market is also much more expensive.

Despite Booker’s involvement with MAIG and NRA’s endorsement of opponent Steve Lonegan, the ads don’t focus on guns:

“… The advertisement focuses on Booker’s primary message: that he is a pragmatic leaders who can get things done. “As mayor, he brought together Republicans, the private sector and community leaders,” says the spot, which describes Booker as “a leader to put progress ahead of partisanship …”

The Washington Times has a good article on the decision Gov. Brown has to make:

“A stack of a dozen of the strictest gun control bills in American history now sit on Governor Jerry Brown’s desk in California, awaiting their fate … Fair warning to Jerry Brown: if he throws his weight behind this extreme gun control, there is no doubt in my mind he suffer the same fate as two other popular Democrat governors in similar blue states.  In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s approval ratings fell 15 points after he signed gun bills into law this year … In Colorado, another Democrat Governor John Hickenlooper has seen his approval ratings plummet 16 points since the day he signed that state’s gun laws.  Not only have they impacted the Governor’s popularity, but Colorado’s gun bills were the catalyst behind the State’s recent historic Recall elections …”

This is true.  What the author left out, but should have included, is the fallout Gov. Christie has experienced since vetoing a bunch of crap in New Jersey.  As far as I can tell it’s been bupkis.

In spite of this, I believe Brown will sign the majority of the bills.  Unlike Cuomo, Brown seems to have gotten the hint he is not Presidential material so he does not have much to lose by going along with the legislature.

The SAFE Act has claimed its first political casualty: Daniel Squadron.

“Letitia James trounced Daniel Squadron in the Democratic primary runoff for public advocate Tuesday night — a victory that essentially guarantees she will become the first African-American woman to hold citywide office … In unofficial results, James, a City Councilwoman from Brooklyn, had 59.4% of the vote with 99% of precincts reporting, while Squadron had 40.6% …”

This is important because Squadron’s campaign literature focused on his gun ban agenda and how he did more for gun control than any other local candidate.  That didn’t move city Democrats.