50Shooter said:
We had a better man then Arnie, his name was Tom McClintock! If all the naysayers would've voted for him instead of being star struck, Tom would be in office right now.
Unfortunately not true. One of the few misstatements Tom makes. Tom's a good guy and I like him...
But I did an analysis of the votes on Calguns a year or so ago. Arnie got a significant carry-over vote from middle-grounders, swing voters, and Democrats.
Tom McClintock would have had hardly any of these, and quite a few would have gone to the pre-scandal Cruzamonte (Cruz Bustamente).
Unfortunately California GOP poltics is driven by relgious-right types out of Orange County, which scares many many middle-of-road fundamentally conservative voters and is why GOP can generally not hold statewide office in CA. The perceived GOP positions on "choice" and perceived religion-in-science class ("creationism", "intelligent
(sic) design", etc.) is keeping away moderate suburban homeowners in droves -
these voters are are afraid of these other positions so much they are making a conscious decision to vote for prospects increased taxes of the Democrats. When people are willing to *pay* not to vote for you, you know your party has trouble.
While Tom McClintock is a true Conservative and not really an evangelical/ 'religious right' "conservative" his party has done little to remove the
"pro-life"/"stupid schools" taint.
It does not matter what your feelings about pro-life and Creationism are personally: they are simply and purely COMPLETELY LOSING ISSUES IN CA.
The number of people voting against CA GOP due to these two issues alone is far greater than the people actively supporting these issues. The latter need to be kicked to the curb as elections are winnable without them - and, in fact their vocal yammering on future exclsion from platform
would help Republicans win.
I can far more easily get a Republican elected to statewide office waving an assault weapon and a bag of dead babies around than I could getting a religious right person elected to statewide office in California. (Sure there are certain local congressional/assembly districts, but those guys term out and can't make it to statewide office.)
Remember, in CA politics, gun control is anywhere from 6th to 9th on "issues of concern" to middle-ground/swing voters. "Choice" (and with associated avoidance of religion in schools - whether or not there's a true connection, there's a perceived tie-in) is always in the first three items of concern.
Since CA GOP cannot generally elect people to statewide office these days due to their "pro-life"/"religious right" etc. stances one must make the logical assumption that this segment of CA GOP is, in fact, anti-gun because they keep pushing local winners into statewide losers in CA GOP primaries.
CA gunnies need to keep voting "one issue only" (guns!) to allow the generally-left antigun forces to be diluted amongst multiple issues.
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As for the microstamping stuff, thanks for the calls folks.
Do be careful and don't start just punching keys - the menu priorities *may* change over time and you could be voting on kangaroo preservation or used car parts bills.
The bills to urge the Gov to VETO (and use that word) are AB821 and AB1471.
We do NOT believe AB1471 is on the Governor's desk yet - it's been 'sent' but appears not to be yet in his office pending enrollment.
We KNOW that AB821 (the condor lead ammo ban) *IS* on his desk ready for signature at any time, please call and urge him to veto.
For more details and talking points and contact info:
http://www.calnra.com/legs.shtml?year=2007&summary=ab1471
http://www.calnra.com/legs.shtml?year=2007&summary=ab821
Bill Wiese
San Jose CA