Gun owners win again in SD
Successful state Legislative races contrast with troubled national outlook
By Ray Lautenschlager
Executive Director
Gun owners certainly have their work cut out for them on the national level.
In less than two months, Barak Obama will be inaugurated the 44th President of the United States. His voting record leaves little doubt that he will be the most anti-Second Amendment president in American history.
The picture gets even worse with the greatly expanded Democrat majorities in both houses of Congress, wielded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Both have long been extremely hostile toward gun rights. When the 111th Congress is seated in January, you can be sure that a full-scale attack on the right to bear arms will be on the agenda.
Gun owners must begin working now to meet this onslaught. SDGO is gathering resources and mobilizing gun owners against what promises be the worst assault on the Second Amendment since the first Clinton administration.
Thankfully, the news on the state level is far brighter. During this election cycle, SDGO members and supporters across the state helped defeat numerous anti-gun candidates and elect several gun rights supporters.
SDGO members re-elect gun rights hero
Perhaps the highlight of the 2008 Legislative elections was the battle to re-elect pro-gun hero Dennis Schmidt to the state Senate. Schmidt is well remembered as the political newcomer who defeated incumbent anti-gun Senator JP Duniphan in 2006.
Since then, Sen. Schmidt (R-33) has proved himself a stalwart gun rights defender. He sponsored both the Citizen Self-Defense Bill and the NRA Youth Hunting Bill, and has tirelessly worked alongside gun owners to oppose new anti-gun restrictions. But taking a stand for gun rights is not cheap, or easy.
As SDGO reported in June, state Representative Mike Buckingham opted to leave his seat in the House in an attempt to take Schmidt’s Senate seat during the Primary Election. Many political observers noted that Buckingham’s widespread popularity made him a formidable challenger. In the weeks before the election, SDGO made sure gun owners were informed about Sen. Schmidt’s outstanding pro-gun record. On Election Day, Schmidt defeated Buckingham by an 18 point margin.
This fall, Schmidt faced Democrat challenger Dennis Finch, whose stand on gun rights was dubious at best. When asked directly, Finch repeatedly refused to tell voters where he stands on any specific Second Amendment issues. This was the second election in a row that Finch had scored an “F” for failing to answer even one question in SDGO’s state-wide Gun Rights Candidate Survey.
About three weeks before the November 4th election, Finch began accusing Schmidt of breaking his promises and failing to fight for gun owners. Finch attempted to present himself as the true gun rights advocate while using radio ads and direct mail to attack Schmidt with blatant falsehoods.
SDGO responded with thousands of mail pieces, revealing Finch’s efforts to hide where he really stands on the issue and detailing Sen. Schmidt’s consistent support for the Second Amendment.
In the end, Schmidt defeated Finch 59 to 41 percent, thanks in no small part to gun owners who got involved.
Gun owners gain new pro-gun leader
SDGO members and supporters also helped elect pro-gun candidate Don Kopp to the state House. Kopp has pledged to sponsor and vote for vital pro-gun legislation and to oppose new restrictions on the right to arms.
But before he could work for gun owners in the state Legislature, Kopp had to defeat two anti-gun candidates. Terry Batchelder and Fern Johnson both took positions opposing the right to self-defense. Johnson went even further to support a host of anti-gun restrictions, such as making the concealed pistol permit harder to obtain, heavily restricting gun shows and making it a crime to keep a handgun ready for self-defense in your own home or business.
Thanks to strong support from informed gun owners, Don Kopp defeated Batchelder and Johnson by strong majorities.
Gun owners also elected several other pro-gun candidates who have signed SDGO’s Gun Rights Pledge or established a decent pro-gun record. These include Jason Frerichs (D-01), David Novstrup (R-03), Manny Steele (R-12), Dan Lederman (R-16), Kim Vanneman (R-26B), Betty Olson (R-28B), Lance Russell (R-30), Mike Verchio (R-30) and Phil Jensen (R-33) to the State House and Al Novstrup (R-03), Russell Olson (R-08), Frank Kloucek (D-19), Julie Bartling (D-26), Ryan Maher (D-28) and Gordon Howie (R-30) to the Senate. Now it is up to gun owners to follow up on these victories by encouraging each of these legislators to remain true to their pro-gun pledges. SDGO will keep you informed.
Numerous anti-gun candidates defeated
Terry Batchelder, Fern Johnson and Dennis Finch join a rapidly growing list of candidates and politicians in South Dakota who have learned that gun control is a losing issue.
Besides Finch, Johnson and Batchelder, SDGO also helped defeat anti-gun state Senators Tom Katus (D-32) and Alan Hoerth (D-03) in the 2008 elections. Both Katus and Hoerth voted against the Citizen Self-Defense Bill earlier this year. Both opposed the right of 18-20 year-olds to posses a firearm for self-defense and both supported new registration and licensing requirements that would heavily restrict the right to purchase a firearm.
SDGO also helped hand notorious anti-gun millionaire Stan Adelstein one of the most difficult races he has ever faced. State Senator Adelstein (R-32) earned an “F” rating from the NRA for his vehement opposition to the Second Amendment. In the past he has voted for the hated Lautenberg Gun Ban and for legislation to register and profile gun owners like criminals. SDGO took Sen. Adelstein to task this year for his anti-gun votes with thousands of mail pieces. After outspending his opponents by more than 2 to 1, Adelstein eked out a narrow victory with a 1.5 point lead.
Gun owners also defeated former state Representative Dick Brown, who rivaled Adelstein as the most anti-gun candidate during this election cycle.
While in office, Brown went out of his way to vote for anti-gun schemes like the Lautenberg Gun Ban and the anti-gun central registry bill. Finally, he was term-limited and had to step down several years ago.
This year, after garnering support from some of the most powerful (and unfortunately, liberal) elements in the Republican Party, Brown took a second run for the state House in Legislative District 30. Many pundits predicted that he would win easily because of his prior experience.
But SDGO mounted an accountability campaign, publishing Brown’s anti-gun voting record across his district. He was caught trying to hide his past anti-gun votes and portray himself as a pro-gun conservative. In the end, Brown was defeated, thanks once again to gun owners who were alerted to his anti-gun record.
Grassroots tactics win long-term gains
Holding politicians accountable at election time is a proven winning strategy.
Notorious anti-gunners Gene Abdallah, Dale Hargens and JP Duniphan are prime examples. Past issues of On Target have detailed their longstanding opposition to the right to bear arms and how SDGO took all three “to the woodshed” during the 2006 elections.
Sen. Abdallah was forced to raise and spend four times more money to win re-election after SDGO aggressively published his voting record to his constituents. Earlier this year, Abdallah reversed his anti-gun position and voted pro-gun four times in a row.
State House Minority Leader Dale Hargens had amassed a long-standing anti-gun track record and had led his party in multiple anti-gun votes. SDGO aggressively published his anti-gun record with thousands of mail pieces in the ‘06 election. As the returns started coming in on election night, Hargens quickly fell behind and stayed there for much of the evening. Then he finally eked out a scanty lead and won by 3 percentage points. After this near loss, Rep. Hargens did an about face. Earlier this year he voted for the right to arms and led his party to do the same.
But former Senator JP Duniphan may be the most dramatic example. For years she supported every single anti-gun bill to be introduced in South Dakota. She embodied the term anti-gun. Duniphan was also a deeply entrenched incumbent. Many said there was no way she could be unseated. But when she ran for re-election in 2006, SDGO mounted a hefty accountability campaign with hundreds upon hundreds of phone calls and thousands of mail pieces.
As you know, Dennis Schmidt defeated Duniphan by a landslide. She is no longer in Pierre to lead the anti-gun crowd, and Sen. Schmidt has become a gun rights hero.
Chastising politicians like Abdallah, Hargens, Duniphan, Brown and Finch for their anti-gun positions has helped change the votes of numerous other legislators.
Literally dozens of state legislators who have voted anti-gun in the past hastened to vote in support of your gun rights this year. These politicians do not want to be caught with an anti-gun vote now that they know gun owners are watching.
In other words, holding the leaders of the anti-gun crowd accountable at election time is a win-win strategy. We either succeed in throwing them out of office, or we force them to expend more time and money just to get re-elected. In either case, every politician in the state learns that opposing the right to keep and bear arms comes with a high price, and most of them simply don’t want to pay it.
Victories must be carried into the Legislative session
Each of these gun rights victories demonstrate the effectiveness of informed gun owners.
Thanks to support from members across the state, SDGO was enabled to publish the state-wide Gun Rights Voter Guide, launch accountability campaigns against anti-gunners in key districts and campaign for strong gun rights leaders. As a result, gun owners had the information they needed to hold their elected representatives accountable at the polls.
SDGO has demonstrated that pro-gun candidates get elected, while anti-gun candidates are likely to lose. This gets the attention of a politician like nothing else.
Now gun owners must carry these political gains into the fast approaching Legislative session. SDGO will be working to pass vital citizen self-defense legislation, and you can be sure that the anti-gun crowd in Pierre will be looking for every opportunity to pass new restrictions.
Stay tuned!