John McCain, who has a long history of anti-gun activity, won
Oregon's primary against the most pro-gun candidate for president
(possibly ever,) Congressman Ron Paul. (In spite of the lies
you may have heard from the mainstream media, Paul has not dropped
out of the race.)
The NRA has now officially hitched
themselves to McCain who worked overtime in 2000 to support
Ginny Burdick's ballot measure to end private sales of firearms
at gun shows. (His efforts were successful.) In the past, they
attacked him.
New York's rabidly anti-gun mayor is using video of McCain as
part of an ad campaign against gun ownership. You can view the
commercial on our home
page.
No doubt you have heard about the very ugly primary race for
this seat, Oregon District 5.
Erickson has no legislative history, but did show us his NRA
survey. It was mostly pro-gun, although not at all an indication
of a candidate who will be a leader for gun owners. Ericskon
was attacked by his primary opponent Kevin
Manniix, late in the campaign with serious claims against
Erickson's personal integrity. Whatever the merits of those
charges, (and there may be plenty) Kevin Mannix himself has
a long history of playing fast and loose with the truth.
It was Mannix who wrote the bill to destroy gun shows that OFF
members defeated in 1999. This was the bill that served as a
model for Ginny Burdick and John McCain's ballot measure in
2000.
Mannix carried the bill on the House floor in 1999, and
reading from a script prepared by a group pretending to be pro-gun,
lied about our efforts to defeat it. He later claimed that he
opposed the bill, when he was running for governor. Except he
wrote it, lobbied for it and carried it.
We cannot predict whether or not Erickson would be good for
gun owners. We do know that Mannix was a proven enemy of gun
owners and we hope he takes this last defeat as a cue to leave
the political stage. But we presume Mannix will continue to
run for every available office, as long as there is a media
stage available.
The Democrat who won is
Kurt Schrader. Schrader is also no friend of gun owners
and supported Mannix's anti-gun show bill. Schrader will certainly
side with anti-gun Democrats should he win this seat.
The Democratic race for US Senate pitched two candidates with
solid liberal credentials against each other, and a third with
similar views, but less background. While Jeff Merkley will
certainly be no friend to gun owners, the other leading candidate,
Steve Novick,
was without question one of the worst candidates for public
office Oregon has hever seen.
Novick has been a point man for the anti-gun crowd and argued
for them in court when OFF opposed the Burdick/McCain gun show
ballot measure in 2000. (Oddly,Novick also used one of his many
government jobs to attack home schoolers calling them "drug
dealers.") While we believe Merkley will be bad,
and we know that Gordon Smith has been no friend to gun owners,
we believe Novick was as bad as any extremist anti-gunner we
have ever seen.
In the race for Attorney General, Democrat John Kroger handily
beat Democrat Greg MacPherson in spite of Macpherson's onslaught
of misleading attack ads against him. (The Republicans had no
candidate.)
We do not know what Kroger's feelings about gun ownership are,
but we do know that MacPherson was one of the most outspoken
and shrill opponents of gun rights in the Oregon Legislature,
and one of the most arrogant. His loss in this race is a great
win for gun owners, since now he will be gone from the Legislature
in addition to not being Attorney General.
Some of the most pro and anti-gun candidates were running unopposed,
which means whoever won those primary races will most likely
face no opposition in the general election. There have been
attempts made in a few cases, however, to get opponents on the
ballot through write in campaigns. So, there may still be some
competition in the general.
One race we watched carefully was the Republican race for House
District 52. That race was won by Matt
Lindland. Lindland won in spite of false accusations
by the campaign manager of his opponent that he was a convicted
felon. (That person also happens to be the wife of former Senator
Bob Packwood.)
Lindland is a mixed martial artist who responded to OFFPAC's
candidate survey with a very pro-gun position. Matt's victory
was a bright spot for gun owners and we wish him the best in
the general election. You can see a list of all the primary
winners here.
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