Though the media isn't reporting last night's election this way, the simple fact is that pro-gun conservatives are about the only candidates who survived the Democrat landslide.
Expect a full report in our newsletter, but a cursory look at the winners from last night show that the Republican elected officials are getting more pro-gun -- and Republican compromisers can't win.
Consider this:
Congressional District 4: Marilyn Musgrave (who ran an amendment this year to get rid of the federal trigger locks compromise cut by the NRA) survived a tough and extremely expensive challenge.
Congressional District 5: Finally, after 20 years of do-nothing Joel Hefley, Colorado Springs now has a hardcore pro-gun conservative in Doug Lamborn. Lamborn has been nothing short of a hero in the state legislature, and we expect even better while he is in Congress.
State Legislature: Mike Kopp handily won a State Senate seat after narrowly defeating a liberal incumbent in the primary.
Gun-hater Tom Mauser worked tirelessly -- and in vain -- to defeat Kopp, who represents the Columbine area. Scott Renfroe trounced his opponent, and Brophy, Harvey and Schultheis cruised to victory. This core of constitutionalists form a solid base in the Senate, even if the Democrats retain control.
On the House side, Kent Lambert joins with conservatives Cory Gardner and David Balmer, among others.
All of these candidates stood firmly for our gun rights in primaries and general elections, and they were rewarded with a seat.
There are also some lessons learned by defeat, though you won't read this in the papers either:
Bob Beauprez followed the same old, failed strategy as the
And while the NRA and CSSA spent much of their time explaining why Bill Ritter is bad on guns (he is terrible, no doubt), they failed to mention that Bob Beauprez actually SIGNED the 2000 SAFE ballot initiative to close the so-called "gun show
loophole." That alone should give gun owners reason for pause, and it did.
What Beauprez, and other establishment types in the GOP don't get, is that though gun owners often vote on the lesser of two evils in cases like this, they don't put their heart and soul into races like this. That means less volunteers, less coffee shop enthuiasm and less money. Yes, we usually vote Republican, but we aren't force multipliers the way we are when we are excited about a solidly pro-gun candidate (who doesn't compromise our rights the way Beauprez has).
The people who run Trailhead and those in their orbit (mostly Gov. Owens' people, like Katie Atkinson) are also big losers in this election. For the second election in a row, they proved that they don't know how to win elections. During the primary they attempted to scare conservatives away from running primaries. Not only did their more liberal candidates lose the primary, but their predications also did not come true (that conservatives winning primaries means they'll lose the general election). If that's the case, why did Bob Beauprez trail the down-ticket conservatives within a given district?
The lesson of the GOP defeats: the establishment (which often tells good guys to "moderate" their stance on guns) is a lead anchor, and their ideas are failing the GOP.
A one-line synopsis of last night's results are: Moderate/liberal Republicans lost, while conservative, pro-gun Republicans won.
Now it's time to get ready to endure the Democrat party in full power in Colorado. Their consultants have been telling them for a number of years that gun control is a loser for their party, and should be left alone. We'll see if Democrats heed that advice.
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Originally Posted by HunterCO
