Today's NRA public enemy #1, Colorado state Senate President John Morse.
Four Colorado Democrats who voted for tough gun safety bills in the state legislature have been targeted by the NRA in a bid to regain some of the organization's fizzling mojo.
Unfortunately for them two of the recall efforts failed during the signature-gathering period. Signatures are due next week for another, and the last one? Today, the NRA's buddies submitted signatures against Colorado Springs Democrat John Morse, also the state Senate president.
The group working to recall Colorado Senate President John Morse over the passage of Democratic gun control legislation earlier this year turned in more than 16,000 signatures at the Secretary of State’s office Monday morning.
That’s more than double the number of valid signatures — 7,178, a percentage of voter turnout in 2010 when Morse was elected — that will be needed to force a recall election in El Paso County later this year.
Absent massive incompetence and/or fraud (always a possibility, particularly since this group used paid petition gatherers), this recall will happen.
The NRA is a cornered animal. Already suffering from an ineffective 2012, gun groups must now contend with Michael Bloomberg's millions in a reshaped playing field.
For too long, the NRA enjoyed a political monopoly on the gun issue. If a legislator strayed, the gun lobby would pounce. Now, it's the opposite—it's the gun safety groups who are on the offensive, beating the crap out of legislators who vote against their constituents and popular opinion.
The NRA needs to reassert itself, and this is the epicenter of that battle. Either the NRA proves that it still has muscle, or it will signal to legislators that the time to fear the gun lobby has come to an end. And if the latter happens, the NRA's ability to distort national gun policy will be severely hampered.
This one is important, guys. The 2014 cycle will be about guns. The opening salvo took place in the IL-02 special election. This is a major escalation of hostilities. And again, the NRA is desperate. It will view every one of these battles as an existential threat. We have to equal their intensity.
So give $3 to John Morse today to beat back the NRA's desperate attempt to reassert its electoral control.