Re: [Redbadbear] Poll Finds Senators Facing Backlash for pro-gun votes

FROM RBB:

Reber writes an interesting note and my response immediately follows his:

Chris Hayes, reporting tonight in Ed Schultz' former slot on MSNBC
> (Schultz seems to be moving to the weekend), used some mostly more
> recent, like last the few days, polls to assert that voters seem
> (something like "probably" was in the results) to be leaning toward
> holding the background check vote against the senators.  An example was
> Alaska where it could be costing Begich 6 percentage points and
> Murkowski 16.  I was too busy trying to make sense of my checkbook to
> give Hayes analytical-type attention.
>
> - Reber Boult


From Hunter:

Eldri handles our checkbook.  Not my forte.

I haven't watched MSNBC much at all for more than two years -- since their 
"merger" with Western Electric resulted in their morphing into an Obama 
mouthpiece.  But, by happenchance, I saw a little of Hayes' thing last 
night. (Personally, I find him not someone I'd ever care to know.)

Virtually all of the key anti-gun people are based in the East -- mostly in 
the Atlantic central setting and certainly much in NYC and environs. As I 
mentioned yesterday eve, they know little about the cultures of the states 
they and their oft-patron, Bloomberg, are bombarding.  I know North Dakota 
pretty well and nothing is at all likely to change there.  I still know 
Arizona fairly well.  If, for example, Gabby Gifford's spouse, Mark Kelly, 
carries out his threat to run against the very popular moderate Republican 
Jeff Flake, making as Kelly has said he will, Flake's pro-gun vote a main 
issue, it is possible he could pull away some votes that would normally go 
to Flake.  But the reverse is the case  in this and also in akin situations 
in other states. People who would normally vote, say, for a Democrat like 
Kelly, would -- on the gun issue -- switch to Flake.  There are two other 
factors in this particular situation:  Kelly is a recent arrival from Texas. 
(Many Arizonians find Texas arrogant.)  Flake is LDS and the Mormon church 
is a powerful factor.  Faced with Kelly on the gun issue, many Democratic 
Mormons would switch to Flake.  Again, I think this holds true in various 
ways in other states.

The "polls" are obviously saying many things.  But we never see the wording 
of the questions thereof.  From the standpoint of political science and 
sociology, those would be very interesting.  One touted poll falls on its 
face immediately:  "85 per cent of NRA members favor background checks" (!).

If CNN is bad enough, as I see it, on the gun issue, MSNBC is far worse.  On 
the day of the Senate vote, MSNBC --  at the bottom of a news story 
completely unrelated to guns -- ran a bold caption, "Heidi Heitkamp is 
Undecided."

You will note that, in my short letter published yesterday in the Grand 
Forks Herald supporting gun rights and Senator Heitcamp, I began immediately 
with a brief comment on my N.D. -- and Eldri's, too -- N.D.. genealogical 
credentials -- frontier roots for both of us and, with me, as far back into 
the Territorial period  as 1870.  That's when my maternal great grandfather, 
Henry Heath, married to Martha Hunter, arrived in the Territory from Ontario 
and began gobbling up very large chunks of land. They were followed by many 
of their relatives. Heath and Hunter are major names in North Dakota 
history.  Eldri's family name is Johanson -- and that rings very nicely with 
much of N.D.'s population.  The fact that her father was a very well known 
Lutheran clergyman in the state, always helped and continues to do so. 
So,whenever I'd give a talk to Anglos in the state, I started with my 
"pedigree" -- on both sides of my family.  I'd do the same for Eldri's 
background.  Pedigree in the longevity sense is very important in North 
Dakota.  I should add that "race", for the most part, is not a special 
factor one way or the other for Anglo audiences..  Speaking on Indian 
reservations, of course, and in my UND classes, everyone was aware (and 
Natives still are) of my Native genealogical credentials.

Best, H


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org  (social justice)

See the new expanded/updated edition of my "ORGANIZER'S
BOOK." It's the inside story of the rise of the massive Jackson
Movement -- careful grassroots organizing, bloody repression, sell-out
and more.  It also covers other organizing campaigns of mine through
 the decades since Mississippi. It's replete with grass-roots organizing
examples and "lessons."  And it has my new 10,000 word
introduction.  Among a myriad of positive comments and reviews:
 ". . .a local activist's important account of the deleterious effects
the involvement  of national organizations can have on indigenous
protest movements."  (Historian David Garrow.)
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm

See the related:  http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm

Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Reber Boult" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2013 9:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Redbadbear] Poll Finds Senators Facing Backlash For Voting 
Against Background Checks(Jenny Wilson, COURANT)


> Chris Hayes, reporting tonight in Ed Schultz' former slot on MSNBC
> (Schultz seems to be moving to the weekend), used some mostly more
> recent, like last the few days, polls to assert that voters seem
> (something like "probably" was in the results) to be leaning toward
> holding the background check vote against the senators.  An example was
> Alaska where it could be costing Begich 6 percentage points and
> Murkowski 16.  I was too busy trying to make sense of my checkbook to
> give Hayes analytical-type attention.
>
> - Reber Boult
>
> On 4/29/2013 4:03 PM, Hunter Gray wrote:
>>
>> *There are many polls saying many things -- but there have been
>> several recent ones indicating a majority of Americans don't want
>> additional gun control stuff.  (Sorry if I don't see the Hartford
>> Courant as exactly an impressive and objective source.)*
>> **
>> *The Illinois election to which you refer is in Chicago -- Jesse
>> Jackson Jr's old district.  Hardly representative of the nation as a
>> whole. And there's much more to Illinois than that -- as attested by
>> the state General Assembly refusing to ban the so-called
>> semi-automatic "assault weapons" not long after the Sandy Hook tragedy.*
>> **
>> *I think the presumed "backlash" against pro-gun Congress people is
>> rather desperate fantasy by losers. I don't think the latter -- the
>> losers -- know much about the cultures of the states involved.  Most
>> pundits see little chance of a revived gun control effort in this
>> Congress  -- which has a number of key issues on its table -- and
>> a vast number of gun rights people are focusing in on 2014 and 2016.
>> Remember, the NRA has five million members and still building and the
>> country has between 80-90 million gun owners and more than three
>> hundred million firearms.*
>> **
>> *H.*
>> HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
>> Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
>> Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
>> www.hunterbear.org <http://www.hunterbear.org> (social justice)
>> See the new expanded/updated edition of my "ORGANIZER'S
>> BOOK." It's the inside story of the rise of the massive Jackson
>> Movement -- careful grassroots organizing, bloody repression, sell-out
>> and more.  It also covers other organizing campaigns of mine through
>>  the decades since Mississippi. It's replete with grass-roots organizing
>> examples and "lessons."  And it has my new 10,000 word
>> introduction.  Among a myriad of positive comments and reviews:
>>  ". . .a local activist's important account of the deleterious effects
>> the involvement  of national organizations can have on indigenous
>> protest movements."  (Historian David Garrow.)
>> http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
>> See the related: http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
>> Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
>> http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
>>
>>     ----- Original Message -----
>>     *From:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>     *To:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>     *Sent:* Monday, April 29, 2013 2:35 PM
>>     *Subject:* [Redbadbear] Poll Finds Senators Facing Backlash For
>>     Voting Against Background Checks(Jenny Wilson, COURANT)
>>
>>     The important political factors involve, of course, campaign
>>     funding as well as constituent opinion.  The rise of Independence
>>     USA and other new PAC groups means that pro-gun lobby politicians
>>     are likely to face well-funded challengers. The Illinois
>>     by-election is likely an omen for future races. (Debbie
>>     Halvorson,  the early front-runner, strongly supported by the NRA,
>>     lost to Robin Kelly, strongly supported by Independence USA and
>>     other gun control groups.)
>>
>>     *Poll Finds Senators Facing Backlash For Voting Against Background
>>     Checks*
>>     By Jenny Wilson On April 29, 2013
>>
>>     After the Manchin-Toomey compromise to expand background checks
>>     failed in the Senate, determining the fate of the full gun
>>     package, Sens. Murphy and Blumenthal, joined by outspoken Newtown
>>     activists, vowed there would be a “political price†paid by those
>>     who voted against gun control.
>>
>>     Recent poll results suggests that voting “no†on gun control may
>>     have become a political liability, something that advocates have
>>     said is the first step in a long-term strategy to enact stricter
>>     gun laws. Liberal leaning Public Policy Polling surveyed voters in
>>     a number of states whose senators voted against the background
>>     check expansion.
>>
>>     Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, the junior senator from Arizona, voted
>>     against the measure despite senior Sen. John McCain voting for it.
>>     Flake’s approval rating dropped 19 points and over 50 percent of
>>     those polled said they are less likely to support him in a future
>>     election /because of this vote. /
>>
>>     Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican from Alaska, saw her
>>     approval rating drop 16 points since February. Democratic Sen.
>>     Mark Begich’s approval rating dropped among Democrats and
>>     Independents, and did not increase among Republicans.
>>
>>     Senators in Nevada and Ohio, both swing states, also saw declines
>>     in approval ratings.
>>
>>     Full results here.
>> 
>> <http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_BackgroundChecks_429.pdf>
>>
>> 
>> http://courantblogs.com/capitol-watch/poll-finds-senators-facing-backlash-for-voting-against-background-checks/
>>
>>
>
>
>
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