With 8 to 1 spending advantage, gun control advocates lose in Colorado

A tremendous amount of funding thrown into the Colorado State Senate recall effort by gun control advocates – including personal funding by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg – still could not save two senators who were recalled by the people of Colorado.

From The Washington Times.

According to Valerie Richardson, who has been following the money trail for The Washington Times, Bloomberg sent $350,000 to Taxpayers for Responsible Government, an “issue committee” formed less than a month ago by Democratic fundraiser Julie Wells. Billionaire Eli Broad of Los Angeles contributed $250,000 to the committee. The committee then donated $420,000 to the two defense campaigns.

Keep in mind, this was not for a general election, it was for a recall vote, a recall vote that was for positions in a state legislature.

From David Kopel at Volokh Conspiracy, who provides a great summary of what happened in Colorado for those of us outside those districts, and not watching closely.

Based on the latest campaign disclosure reports, Morse/Giron enjoyed an 8:1 spending advantage over recall advocates, in terms of direct contributions to campaigns. Michael Bloomberg contributed $350,000 to fight the recalls, about equal to the $361,000 contributed by the NRA, which is probably about $3 per NRA member in the state. Another wealthy contributor gave $250,000 to oppose the recalls.

The first thing I had to check was the 8:1 spending advantage. I checked Colorado’s state site that tracks contributions and spending for Issues Committees and sure enough, groups opposed to the recall efforts had $2.965 million and the NRA-sponsored committee to recall Morse and Giron had about $361,000.

The gun control legislation pushed through in Colorado by these tyrants was bad, but the real problem for these fools is they refused to listen to the voters and they paid the price. More from Kopel.

It would be accurate to say that the recall campaign was driven by opposition to the anti-gun bills which Morse and Giron pushed through the legislature. But this is only the first part of the story. As it turns out, Morse and Giron sealed their fates on March 4, the day that the anti-gun bills were heard in Senate committees. At Morse’s instruction, only 90 minutes of testimony per side were allowed on each of the gun bills. As a result, hundreds of Colorado citizens were prevented from testifying even briefly. Many of them had driven hours to come to the Capitol, traveling from all over the state.

That same day, 30 Sheriffs came to testify. They too were shut out, with only a single Sheriff allowed to testify on any given bill. So while one Sheriff testified, others stood up with him in support.

Do go read all of Kopel’s post to get up to speed. Here in Connecticut, we have no recall provision that I know of. When we know opposition to the gun control legislation at the committee hearings – and the statements submitted online – ran more than 9 to 1 against yet still legislators disregarded the views of the people and implemented a bunch of laws that do nothing but punish law-abiding gun owners, you’ve got to wonder what the heck is wrong with our political system.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

4 Comments

  1. JollyRoger on September 11, 2013 at 9:02 am

    It’s ironic those pols were called by Obama & Biden and told that the whitehouse would be running new candidates against them if they didn’t toe the line on gun control- and now they’re gone after toeing the Obama line 🙂



  2. bien-pensant on September 11, 2013 at 9:29 am

    We in the gun community have not forgotten how we were vilified by the democrats and sacrificed to the left-stream media following Sandy Hook. The democrats are busy creating new crises and diversions, but election day is nearing and we have not forgotten. There are also more than a few Republicans who traded our legal rights for their short-term political gain.
    Malloy stepped on a lot of democrat toes pandering for attention from the Obama regime. Not all gun owners are conservative, right-wing types. There are some who are left leaning and who are now committed to seeing the democrat tyranny end.



  3. Dimsdale on September 11, 2013 at 10:13 am

    I was following the results of the recall, and found that the usual complaints by loser lefties: voter suppression, waste of money, too much money and effort invested by the NRA etc., etc.
    ?
    Steve showed that money surely wasn’t an issue, and nobody can seem to find the voter suppression imagined by the head of the DNC, which leaves the? usual “just vote them out next time” retort.?? Well, memories fade, other issues take precedence and the usual suspects get reelected.? The cost of this election was a) to get the offenders out (unlike CT), and b) serve as a reminder to pols not to repeat their lockstep reactionary legislating.? It will be a reminder for the next election too, where pols will know that they can’t just walk all over voters (again, like CT).
    ?
    More power to the CO patriots that eradicated some of the liberal infestation in their state!



  4. Gary J on September 11, 2013 at 8:35 pm

    ? I read all the things on what happened in Colorado. It all reads the same. “there are people in our country that are awake and or are awakened by certain things happening to their freedoms and they do something about it.? Ahhhhh Then there’s Connecticut. the Kennedy state. “Ask not what you can do for your country ask what your country can do for you.”



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