Getting Out the Vote

Getting out the Pennsylvania vote is a big business – at least in areas like New York and Washington, DC.  Did you know that outside groups are planning to pay strangers who don’t know anything our home districts to come and recruit voters to turn up at the polls?  One group plans to spend in a quarter of their $2 million budget targeting the Philadelphia suburbs with these outsiders attacking pro-rights candidates like Mike Fitzpatrick and Pat Meehan.

Some of our local supporters have seen firsthand what these groups will do when they come through our neighborhoods.  In 2008, after a busload of supporters from groups like MoveOn were brought in from New York, every John McCain sign on their street was ripped apart and the frames bent out of shape so they could not easily be reused for pro-Second Amendment candidates.

One local anti-gun politician in California cited her desire for higher campaign donation limits after New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made the maximum donation to her re-election campaign.  In an interview, she reported that he was funneling money into the campaign accounts to members of his anti-gun group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns.  Did you know that he has hundreds of allies here in Pennsylvania?  And they have their sights set on taking their fight to the top – one of his earliest anti-gun allies is running for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 15th district.

In the 8th district, anti-gun incumbent Patrick Murphy has accepted raised more than 40% of his direct campaign funds from people outside of Pennsylvania.  The total, edging up near 3/4 of a million dollars from outside of our borders, is 70% more than the next closest incumbent seeking re-election, according to a recent study of Pennsylvania Congressional race donations.

These are just a few of the examples of why we need NRA members to lend a hand to pro-gun candidates.  Just an hour or so at a phone bank will allow you to reach 40 potential voters to remind them to turn out for our rights on Election Day.  An hour delivering yard signs will help raise name recognition to candidates among hundreds or potentially thousands of voters who drive past those key locations every day.  Do you have a special skill that could benefit a candidate?  Maybe helping create a new website or building larger wooden signs could extend your impact on a race.

These are just a few of the ways that NRA members can help take back our elections and put the right people in office who will vote to protect the rights we cherish.  We don’t need the values of paid staffers from New York City or Washington making our decisions for us.  But, in order to overcome their influence, we all need to give a little something.