State Senator Responsible for Concealed Carry Deal to Announce Run for Lt. Governor

The presidential nominating process isn't even finished and already candidates are lining up for the 2017 Virginia statewide elections.  The latest is State Senator Bryce Reeves, the driving force behind the deal to reinstate reciprocity/recognition with the 25 states that Attorney General Mark Herring had planned to end. The Washington Post reports:

Reeves, a Spotsylvania small businessman, former Army Ranger and former Prince William County narcotics detective, plans to announce his bid early Monday evening at the Virginia War Memorial, with several members of the legislature by his side.

“Virginia deserves strong conservative leadership, and I plan to continue to bring just that to Richmond,” said Reeves, 49, in a statement. “I have proudly fought for all Virginians during my time in the Senate, whether it meant protecting their 2nd Amendment rights, standing up for the rights and proper treatment of our veterans and military families, or simply working to lower taxes and provide economic opportunity for everyday Virginians.”

Reeves becomes the second GOP State Senator to announce a run for Lt. Governor.  Over the weekend, State Senator Jill Vogel told the Post she planned to run as well.

While Vogel has a pro-rights voting record, Reeves will likely garner a lot of support for his role in brokering the deal, resulting in the bills to be signed a couple weeks ahead of the end of the General Assembly session.  The nomination will be decided at a party convention in June of 2017.

Urge Your State Senator to Support SB 610 Overturning Herring's Reciprocity Action

Wednesday night, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee advanced SB 610, Senator Bryce Reeve's bill that would overturn Attorney Mark Herring's late December announcement that Virginia would no longer recognize the concealed handgun permits of 25 states, which will likely impact Virginia concealed handgun permit holders ability to carry in those states when traveling.  SB 610 provides that a holder of a concealed handgun permit issued by any state who is at least 21 years of age is authorized to carry a concealed handgun in Virginia. The bill requires the Attorney General to enter into agreements for reciprocal recognition with other states that require an agreement to be in place before the state will recognize a Virginia concealed handgun permit as valid in the state. Current law recognizes concealed handgun permits issued by states that (i) provide a 24-hour-a-day means of verification of the validity of the permits issued in that state and (ii) have requirements and qualifications that are adequate to prevent possession of a permit by persons who would be denied a permit in Virginia.

SB610 will be on final passage on Monday or Tuesday.  You can find out how to contact your state Senator by clicking here.

Legislative Update with NRANews

Virginia House and Senate Democrats have introduced bills to create "gun store-free zones," another effort to shut down Nova Firearms' new location in McLean, Virginia. I had the opportunity to talk about this and other legislative action during yesterday's NRANews Cam and Company.  Legislation continues to move forward to maintain concealed carry permit reciprocity with 25 states that was abruptly terminated by Attorney General Mark Herring. Originally aired on Cam & Co 01/26/16.

Obenshain Press Conference at 3:00 Today

Virginia Pilot is reporting that GOP sources tell them the Harrisonburg State Senator will concede the AG race at that time.  Democrat Mark Herring's lead has swelled to over 800 votes.  This will be the first time in over 20 years that a Democrat has held the AG's office.

Virginia Recount Update

There are still a lot of votes to be recounted but this update from the Washington Post indicates that Herring's lead in the AG's race continues to grow.  The recount is to be completed by 11:59 PM tonight Wednesday.

Election Post Mortem

In what turned out to be a much closer election at the top of the ticket than anyone expected, Terry McAuliffe ended up with a 2.46 1.94% margin of victory.  Clearly, McAuliffe's victory was won in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia, where he won by more votes (66,507) than the final margin of victory (54,823 54,704).  McAuliffe's and Bloomberg's strategy of running up a large margin in this region to make the rest of the state irrelevant worked.

In the other competitive race, State Senator Mark Obenshain, currently leads State Senator Mark Herring by .01.03% or 319 476 votes, according the the State Board of Elections web site.  There will likely be a recount and we could see the same drawn out process that we witnessed in 2005 when Bob McDonnell bested Creigh Deeds by a little over 300 votes.

Most pundits expected Obenshain to win unless Cuccinelli was blown out.  He ran a better campaign than Herring, running mostly positive television ads featuring his 20 something daughter to get out in front of the expected "War On Women" attack.  Herring was considered to have run an inept campaign by some observers.  Then, Mike Bloomberg came in and dropped $1 million in ads on Herring's behalf.  Those adds did not just focus on gun control but also on other social issues in an attempt to motivate voters who may not be motivated by gun control.

Did Bloomberg's ads make a difference?  Well, in the House races, it appears to have been a wash.  According to VPAP, Bloomberg's PAC invested in two House races, and split, winning in the 93rd District where he contributed to Monty Mason, the winner, but lost in the 87th District where he contributed to the opponent of Delegate David Ramadan.  Ramadan Won.  It had also been reported that Bloomberg contributed $100,000 to the race of Kathleen Murphy in the 34th District but VPAP does not show any donations either from his PAC or from Bloomberg directly.  Murphy lost.  Over all, the GOP won 67 of the 100 House races, a very hefty pro-rights majority to block any gun control McAuliffe may push. The Democrats picked up two seats currently held by the GOP, both in Northern Virginia.  The GOP picked up a seat currently held by a retiring Democrat.

And, some Dems apparently think Bloomberg contributed to the closeness of the race.

Already heard from one nat'l Dem who quietly worries that Bloomberg's gun ads late were not helpful and added to closeness
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) November 6, 2013

Something else, the CNN Exit Poll asked those interviewed if there were any gun owners in the home and 47% responded yes. This indicates to me that a high number of gun owners voted yesterday. What should concern us however is that of those interviewed who indicated there was a gun owner in the home, 33% voted for Terry McAuliffe. We don't know if the person interviewed was the gun owner or the spouse/significant other of the gun owner.

So, what impact will yesterday's results have on the rights of gun owners in Virginia for the next four years?  Clearly, getting pro-rights legislation signed into law is going to be more difficult.  Getting it out of the Senate will depend on what happens with the special election to fill Northam's seat.  Should Obenshain end-up being declared the winner in the AG's race, there will also be a special election to fill that vacancy.  If the Democrats end up with the majority in the Senate, we may have to dedicate a significant amount of resources to defeat bad legislation in that house of the legislature.  We do still have a firewall with the House of Delegates but we don't want to see bad bills passed in the Senate.

This is not completely over yet, but we do have a sense of what we are facing in the next couple of years, and it's not going to be fun.

Hat tip to Sebastian for the Chuck Todd comment.

Obenshain Currently Outperforming Cuccinelli

Currently, the bottom of the ticket for both parties is outperforming the top with State Senator Mark Obenshain currently leading the AG race with a total of 705,702 and State Senator Mark Herring 639,282.  In the Governor's race Cuccinelli has 649,934 and McAuliffe has 618,513.

Bloomberg Injects Himself Into Virginia AG Race

After pumping $2 million into the Virginia Governor's race, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is now adding an additional million targeting GOP candidate for Attorney General, Mark Obenshain.  But unlike the ads against Cuccinelli, which attack the Republican for his stance against gun control, Bloomberg is targeting Obenshain on other social issues in addition to gun control.  From Politico:

The Bloomberg spot broadly paints Obenshain as a hard-right candidate, using his support six years ago as a state senator for a so-called “personhood” amendment and pivoting to a vote against background checks at gun shows.

And just as Bloomberg's ads against Cuccinelli are misleading (a polite description), the ads against Obenshain are just as dishonest:

“Here are few things Mark Obenshain tried to outlaw,” the narrator of the ad says. “Birth control pills. Women choosing to have an abortion, even in the case of rape or incest.”

The ad goes on: “But when it comes to actual criminals, Obenshain voted to let convicted felons avoid background checks at gun shows, and voted to repeal the one gun a month law, meaning criminals could buy guns in bulk. Instead of dictating to women, Virginia needs an Attorney General who cracks down on real criminals.”

Bloomberg is on a mission to defeat those who believe in the Second Amendment. He sees that the Attorney General’s race is neck-and-neck, with Mark Obenshain leading in most public polls.  Bloomberg is hoping to tip the scale in favor of anti-rights Democrat Mark Herring.

Cuccinelli, Jackson and Obenshain need your help to counter the big money.