Alphecca

Win-Win in PA Senate Race

No matter who voters in Pennsylvania choose to be their next senator, they'll get a firmly pro-gun rights advocate. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

No matter who wins Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race, the National Rifle Association probably won't be complaining.

On gun issues, Republican Sen. Rick Santorum and Democrat Bob Casey Jr. could be twins.

Santorum earned an A-plus and an endorsement from the NRA - whose leaders campaigned with him yesterday. Casey got an A, the highest mark for a nonincumbent.

Both oppose renewing the federal ban on the sale of semiautomatic weapons. They support child-safety locks on guns, but back immunity for gun manufacturers from lawsuits and reject calls to limit handgun purchases to one a month.

Such overlapping on a fractious issue defies party labels, but it highlights an abiding rule of Pennsylvania politics: To win statewide, side with sportsmen, hunters and gun owners. The NRA says Pennsylvania has more members per capita than any other state.

Obviously there are positions by both candidates on a host of other issues that voters will have to weigh before making their choices.

Here in Vermont, that reminded me of the governor's race several years ago between Howard Dean and Ruth Dwyer. Both were endorsed by the NRA.

In this year's senate race in Vermont, we're stuck with a choice between socialist Bernie Sanders and Republican Rich Tarrant.

Sanders has a terrible voting record as a congressman regarding protecting gun rights. He's voted most of the time FOR gun control measures.

Rich Tarrant has been virtually silent on the issue -- something that I personally take to mean that he's afraid to take a position one way or another. I'm going to email his campaign for some definitive answers.

In the Vermont congressional race, both Democrat Peter Welch and Republican Martha Rainville say they oppose gun control (that's an audio file link) with Rainville perhaps being a bit more forceful and direct about it.

This is actually pretty standard here in Vermont where, as in Pennsylvania, gun control advocates rarely get elected at the state level. So at the national level, how the hell did we wind-up with Jeffords and Leahy and Sanders for so long? Beats the hell out of me!