Bloomberg Comes to Virginia to Endorse Davis

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg comes to Fairfax today to endorse vehemently anti-gun self-described RINO (Republican in Name Only) Jeannemarie Devolites Davis. For those down state that are not familiar with Davis, she is the wife of 11th District Congressman Tom Davis. Congressman Davis just bowed out of the U.S. Senate race to succeed Senator John Warner. During the 2007 Session of the General Assembly, Devolites Davis introduced legislation to "close the gun show loophole" but the bill was defeated in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee. She has made gun control a centerpiece of her campaign.

A little background on the state senator; when she was first elected to the House of Delegates, she ran as a right of center Republican and supported the agenda of the conservative House Republican Caucus. Much has changed however since she was elected to the State Senate. For one, her district has voted for Democrats in the last three statewide elections. Rather than make her case as to why a Republican position on issues important to the district would be better than those proposed by Democrats, she has positioned herself as "Democrat Lite." It has been my experience that when voters are given a choice between the real thing and a "knock off" they choose the real thing every time.

It has been proven more than once that people who support gun control do not base their vote on that issue alone. However, it has been demonstrated that a lot of pro-gun voters do base their vote for or against a candidate solely on the gun issue.

Gun owners in the district have a hard choice in a year that conventional wisdom says it is 50/50 that the Senate may flip party control. They have to choose between a Democratic candidate that received a "C" rating from the NRA but if elected would likely flip the State Senate to anti-gun leadership, or an "F" rated candidate that will continue to push gun control but keep the key leadership positions like chairmanship of Courts (the committee where most all gun bills are assigned) in pro-gun hands and thus neutralizing Davis' anti-gun positions.

It should be noted that Devolites Davis was one of only 10 senators (and the only Republican) that voted against HB 2653 - Delegate Scott Lingamfelter's Illegal Conveyance of Firearms bill that put an end to Bloomberg's questionable sting operations against Virginia Gun Owners.

You can read the NY Times coverage of Bloomberg's endorsement here.