All about guns, legislation and politics in New York
Due to popular demand there will be another .50 caliber match at Fort Drum October 9-11. Get the forms from the NCSA website here.
On January 12, 2010 Wayne LaPierre will be coming to Albany for a NYS Sportsmen Outreach program. More details on this later.
Mayor Bloomberg received the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service from the Lasker Foundation for his work on, among other guns, gun control.
There will be a special election in CD-23 on November 3.
Governor Paterson vetoed the Ontario Co. rifle hunting bill A-7581A/S-6057. A modified version was introduced a few weeks ago, A-9123/S-6142.
Two (more) reasons to stay away from Rick Lazio:
Peconic River is having their annual Meet the Candidates night next Friday the 25th @ 7:00pm. The event is free and open to the public and includes free cocktails, door prizes and raffle.
David Yassky lost the Comptroller primary yesterday, but unfortunately the winner John Liu came up a little short of the 40% needed to avoid a runoff. Both will be in a runoff election on the 29th.
In Albany, Common Councilman James Scalzo lost his race. He was one of the sponsors of ORD 48.41.07, the Bloomberg inspired omnibus gun control package introduced two years ago.
In the Town of Kent, R&P member John Greene won his primary to claim the GOP endorsement for the November general election.
Middletown Mayor Marlinda Duncanson lost her primary to previous Mayor Joseph DeStefano. Duncanson joined MAIG earlier in the year and started parroting their agenda. She is the 2nd MAIG member we’ve been able to oust in New York.
Richard Aborn is the former head of Handgun Control (Brady Campaign.) He’s directly responsible for the Brady Law and the ’94 Clinton gun ban. He based his campaign for Manhattan DA entirely upon his gun control record. He hadn’t tried a case in like 20 years so it’s not as if he could base it on his extensive legal experience.
He spent the last year on the campaign trail talking about gun control. He raised over a million dollars for his campaign. He had more endorsements than either of his opponents including ones from Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, State Senators Eric Schneiderman and Eric Adams, Assemblypersons Jonathan Bing, Deborah Glick, Richard Gottfried, Brian Kavanagh, Daniel O’Donnell, Linda Rosenthal and Michelle Schimel, the Brady Campaign, Gun Free Kids, Million Mom March and New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. The Brady Campaign donated $1000. NYAGV founder Barbara Hohlt and current mouthpiece Jackie Hilly each made personal campaign contributions.
Aborn repeatedly attacked the NRA and accused them of being out to get him. He attacked opponent Cy Vance for a small campaign donation he made years ago to a politician in Seattle who just so happened to be pro-gun. He sent out a mailer of him shaking hands with Bill Clinton, implying Clinton endorsed Aborn, which pissed Clinton off because he didn’t. Aborn attacked the R&P and thought it was funny we would tell members to vote against him. He finished up by making a last minute personal loan of $50,000 to his campaign.
The end result?
Aborn had his butt kicked up and down the boro. He didn’t just lose; he came in dead last with only a quarter of the votes. He did so badly it should damage the creditability of those who endorsed him because a solid majority of Manhattan Democrats wanted nothing to do with him or his agenda.
The Daily Politics reports Rick Lazio will formally announce he’s running for Governor next week. Whoopie. Let’s examine what he’s got going for his campaign:
Strengths: He’s not Rudy.
Weaknesses: He’s Rick Lazio.
That about sums things up.
Fred Dicker writes on the latest Rudy rumors:
“Top state Republicans will urge former Mayor Rudy Giuliani to abandon his interest in running for governor and run instead against unelected US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand …”
Give it a rest already. His presidential bid was a farce and his bid to take over the NYGOP flopped. People do not want him.
“… The GOP’s pitch to Giuliani is expected to include the claim that the party’s only hope for a resurgence in New York is to pick up several “secondary” statewide offices, such as senator and state comptroller … Polls have repeatedly shown Giuliani … to be the Republicans’ strongest potential statewide contender for governor …”
And that’s not saying much.
The state GOP’s only real hope for a resurgence is to dump the RINOs, party hacks and politicians who ran the party into the ground in the first place including Rudy, Pataki, Mondello, etc. Good things will not happen for the NYGOP until these people are purged. After that the reformation can begin.
The latest poll data I could find for the Comptroller race has John Liu at 25%, Melinda Katz at 24%, David Yassky at 21% and David Weprin at 10%.