Mark your calendars - Maryland's primary is February 12th!
All gun-rights advocates should get fired up when elections are upon us and this year is no exception. Chiefly federal offices are up, and unlike in previous years we may see a few changes in the Congressional delegation. Not all districts have serious pro-gun opportunities, but nevertheless: scrimmage your team. It is always in order to keep our troops in the habit of supporting election efforts, and it isn’t like we have many chances to test drive a machine in advance of 2010 state elections. That’s when we need you at brigade strength and fighting peak. Build and train now. You can’t roll out of the sack on November 2, 2010, and decide to launch a pro-gun campaign – not and win.
In Congressional 6 (Western MD), naturally all hands should turn out for pro-gun incumbent Roscoe Bartlett. He faces no serious threat, but let’s not take chances. He remains deserving of our stongest support. Give it!
In Congressional 4 (gerrymandered central MD district), long-time incumbent Al Wynn’s reign may be coming to a close. Or not, depending on what pundit you ask. He just barely dodged the bullet in 2006, as Donna Edwards’ bid in the Dem primary surprised everyone with a strong challenge. This year she’s mounting a stronger campaign, with more funding and experience. The flip side is that Wynn’s earlier near-death experience clearly inspired him to two hard years of working in his district to reinforce his defenses. Normally we’d recommend that all hands vote for the challenger against an anti-gunner, but it isn’t clear that Edwards wouldn’t be a lot worse. Don’t spend here, but pull for Wynn, let us know you did, and maybe he can be reminded at a suitable moment that gunowners saved his hide.
Congressional 1 (chiefly eastern shore) gives us an interesting GOP primary. Wayne Gilchrest is a representative whose constituent service and bond with his base kept him the incumbent for years. Long-time readers also know it was his position on some gun legislation years ago that kept us backing his challengers – unsuccessfully. In recent years we’ve worked hard to persuade Gilchrest on the merits of our positions, and with some success. From an engineering perspective, this made sense, since it is far cheaper to persuade rather than replace an incumbent.
And so it was with mixed feelings that we learned that Gilchrest would be challenged by Andy Harris, presently the state senator for District 7 (parts of Baltimore and Harford Counties.) In 1998 Harris was our candidate to take out the anti-gun incumbent there, and indeed gunowners made the difference in that race (as in each race since.)
If Harris had been our guy, then why mixed feelings? Andy has shown us he lacks what it takes to faithfully work with the community or put the interests of our cause first. He has voted pro-gun in the General Assembly and we do not foresee this changing. But stewardship is more than just votes, and he has demagogued guns to the community’s detriment, apparently to serve partisan needs. When gun advocates worked hard to avoid bruising legislative fights we could not win in Annapolis, we have watched the Harris operation fan flames of controversy behind the scenes trying to precipitate confrontation. (One staff member expressed to us the theory that a semi-auto ban enacted just before elections would be good for mobilizing gunowners to help the GOP smite Democrats.) Harris declined to push pro-gun tactics for fear of exposing the Ehrlich administration as weak on gun issues, yet in the 2006 election he needlessly picked a fight with the NRA for having endorsed pro-gun Democrats in other districts.
We appreciate Harris’ senate vote, but not his partisanship. His actions make clear that he thinks issue groups owe him, not the other way around. Harris may grow into the job, and if so we’ll cheerfully work with him in Annapolis, but until he gives the cause its due, we’d rather advance someone else to Congress.
So … Gilchrest or Harris? Our decision got easier when EJ Pipkin recently entered the race. In 2002 we backed EJ against an incumbent member of Senate leadership, Walter Baker, who had made one too many deals to enable gun control. We have never regretted that endorsement. EJ won and has worked with us ever since. His door is always open to a constituent, and he has been our go-to Senator on a host of issues, not least of which range protection. He lives on the Eastern shore he has represented in the Senate, and understands locals’ needs (especially when it comes to the bay.) We give EJ Pipkin our strongest endorsement for Congress in District 1.
No senators’ terms are up this year, and the remaining Congressional races aren’t really races. (Some incumbents don’t have even token opposition in the primary, and the rest have no credible opposition in the general.)
Right now it looks like Maryland will be largely irrelevant in the Presidential primary. The unprecedented schedule may have our primary earlier than ever, but we’re still way back in the pack. The shakeout may take place not long after you receive this month’s Tripwire. On one side you have your choice of domestic enemies of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. On the other you have either weak candidates who are strong on guns or strong candidates who are weak on guns. In Presidential races, save your money and energy to when it can make a difference in the future.