Shannon Watts, Bloomberg, Use Virginia as Proof They Will Win

It's become a standard talking point for Mike Bloomberg and the people associated with his various offshoot organizations and it continued with this interview by David Gregory of NBC's Meet the Press:

We’ve shown that we can make a difference in the voting booth too: Joe Baca in California. Robin Kelly in Nevada. And just look at the triple crown in the most recent elections in Virginia, also home to the NRA. Terry McAuliffe, the Lt. Governor and the Attorney General all won by making fixing Virginia’s gun laws a campaign issue. And they won because of – not in spite of – this position.

According to Bloomberg et al, gun control is why McAuliffe and his running mates won in Virginia in 2013.  The inconvenient truth is that Cuccinelli's campaign was the worst run since the 2001 Mark Earley campaign and McAuliffe avoided talking about gun control until many polls showed him with a 10 point lead. The GOP Lt. Governor candidate while a solid conservative had made some comments that were easily taken out of context, causing him to lose by more about twenty points, which likely dragged down GOP Attorney General candidate Mark Obenshain to defeat by about 907 votes.  The talking point works for those who don't know about or follow Virginia politics but there were a lot of reasons that McAuliffe defeated Ken Cuccinelli and being a proponent of gun control was the least of them. 

The fact is McAuliffe did not actively support or lobby for any of the gun control measures introduced during the General Assembly.  He has resorted to amending a total of two pieces of legislation that easily passed both houses of the legislature by attaching gun control measures to them. He was defeated on one before the end of the session and the second bill awaits action on Wednesday of this week during the reconvened session.  It is likely to fail as well.