GOP shoots and scores

Another good night for the Second Amendment?

David Kopel at Volokh Conspiracy:

NY-23: Winning Democrat Bill Owens was A-rated by NRA (as was Hoffman).

Virginia: Either Deeds (B rating) or McDonnell (A) were sure to be a big improvement over outgoing Governor Kaine. Deeds lost the NRA endorsement by supporting closing of the (non-existent) “gun show loophole.” In the Attorney General race, Republican Ken Cuccinelli (A+) handily defeated a D-rated Democrat who advertised very aggressively on the gun show issue. Incumbent Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (A+) trounced an F-rated challenger.

In the Virginia House of Delegates, five Republican challengers with A ratings ousted Democratic incumbents rated F,F,B,B,B. A C-rated Republican also unseated an F Democrat incumbent. The House of Delegates already had a fairly solid pro-Second Amendment majority, so the major change in Virginia is a new Governor who, like former Governor and current Senator Mark Warner (Dem.), will sign rights-enhancing legislation passed by the legislature.

By far the most prominent gun control advocate on the ballot this year was Jon Corzine (F). This summer, Corzine twisted lots of legislative arms to win enactment of gun rationing (“one-handgun-a-month”), a silly law (.pdf) that is even sillier in New Jersey, where every handgun purchase requires advance permission from the local police chief. With Christie replacing Corzine, New Jersey gun owners can hope for benign neglect rather than active hostility. The New Jersey Assembly appears to be unchanged.

In sum: A bad night for advocates of gun show restrictions. Another fine night (as were election nights 2006 and 2008) for Democrats with A ratings from NRA. And good news for Second Amendment advocates in blue New Jersey and purple Virginia.

Good so far as this goes, but let's note anti-gun Bloomberg won NYC's mayoral, and this seems more important than the rural house special where all the candidates (incl. Scozzafava) were A-rated.

Stupid alcohol laws in VA

Let us hope new laws re-legalizing, regulating, and taxing drugs are never this retarded. Still, it's a meaningful improvement over prohibition.

From the real-er part of Virginia

An anecdote:

Last week, Julie Hensley made one of her thousands of phone calls on behalf of Barack Obama. A woman answered. As Hensley ran through her short script, the husband impatiently broke in.

"Ma'am, we're voting for the nigger." And hung up.

Hensley wasn't having it. "I went and made a couple other calls but chafed over this absurdity," she told us, "so I called them back, as I still had a couple questions for the wife." This time the man answered, asked pointedly who she was, and when she replied he hung up again.

[...]

A couple hours later during a pause in her dials, her phone rang. She recognized the number. "This is going to be good," she remembers thinking, getting ready to scrap.

It was the husband. He was calling for the woman on whom he'd hung up. She then got something she didn't expect -- an apology. Calmly, Hensley told the man she'd accept his apology on one condition -- he had to tell her who he was voting for.

"Oh, I don't normally talk about it but I feel like I owe you," the man said. "I am voting for Senator Obama." He asked if Hensley would like to speak to his wife, as he'd interrupted the original call. Hensley mentioned that she had been surprised when he'd called to apologize. Apparently the husband and wife had been talking the entire couple hours since the original call. "Did she get upset with you?" Hensley asked.

"What do you think?" the man replied.

More Virginia

Following their brave trip to unreal, anti-America NoVa, the FiveThirtyEight crew went on to Richmond, which is currently under a liberal anti-American occupation. They spoke with the occupation's unreal governor and lived to tell the tale.

From the digging-your-own-grave dept.

McCain Sr. policy advisor: Northern Virginia not "real" Virginia:



Go ahead and mentally color the state a slightly deeper shade of blue...Yglesias waxes:

Of course it’s true that there’s a contrast between those portions of Virginia that are part of Metro DC and the rest of the state and probably correct to say that the rest of Virginia is “more Southern in nature.” But still, lots of folks live in Northern Virginia. They’re perfectly real people. And they live in real places. And progressive candidates with their base in NoVa won the governor’s mansion in 2001 and 2005 and the Senate election in 2006, are poised to win the state’s other Senate seat in 2008 and currently are winning in the presidential sweepstakes. It all seems real enough to me.

If he loses Virginia, McCain has to win a blue state like Minnesota or Pennsylvania plus hold on to all of Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Missouri. He cannot win otherwise.

Memo to the McCain campaign: you're supposed to pander to independent, swingable voters, not give them the impression that you think where they live "isn't real" or "doesn't count as real", etc.

Oh, Virginia

FiveThirtyEight:

Virginia is now projecting very slightly ahead of Obama's national trendline, and would seem to represent a better pickup opportunity for him than Ohio. I'd assume that the Obama campaign is fairly pleased with that, because this is a state where they overperformed during the primaries, where they have Tim Kaine in the governor's mansion, and where the Republicans don't have quite as much of a ground game, as they are not used to having to defend the state in Presidential cycles (remember, John McCain is mostly relying in George W. Bush's scraps from 2004).

So where isn't Obama polling so well? In Ohio and Pennsylvania, where his numbers remain sluggish. While Obama would very probably win Pennsylvania if the election were held today -- he ticked up a couple of points in Rasmussen's numbers -- it has gradually moved toward Obama's national averages. What that means is that if the national numbers revert to a tie, Pennsylvania may be vulnerable, which is why it has moved up and now rates as the most important tipping point state.

I sure didn't think PA would get this close, that's interesting.

I'd like Obama to pick up VA more than any other state; it would be the best wake-up call for Republicans.

Macaca diversity

Ta-Nehisi disbelieves that George Allen (yes, that George Allen) will be speaking at a rally for minorities. I think his first commentator put it mildly.

Not that blacks in VA needed much of a push towards Obama, but if Reps keep up the shocking tone-deafness they may as well kiss the state blue.