President Obama’s new push on gun control, endorsed by Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, could hit the Democrats worse than in 1994 when President Bill Clinton lost control of the House and Senate after signing the Brady Bill.
The reason: America’s gun culture is growing in major battleground states such as Ohio, Virginia and Florida, and Latino and women voters are jumping in with both feet, opening them to GOP outreach on guns.
Consider those who have concealed carry permits, a number that has surged to nearly 15 million since Clinton was in the White House. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, pointed to statistics that show 1.4 million in Florida, 1.1 million in Pennsylvania, 463,000 in Ohio and 387,000 in Virginia.
Norquist said Democrats have missed that more people, especially blue-collar workers, have more guns and that the firearms are a greater part of their lives than before.
“Having a concealed carry is a more intimate relationship with your gun,” said Norquist, who credits the huge growth of GOP-led states in creating new Republicans through expansion of gun rights, support for home schooling and right-to-work laws. “It’s like your child. You know where your child is.”
Women are becoming the fastest-growing market for guns. In one recent survey, more than half of women, 55.8 percent, said they plan to buy a firearm soon.
Then there is the growing Hispanic gun market. An internal survey provided to the Washington Examiner by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents gun makers and sellers, found that 18 percent of Latinos own a gun and 25 percent more want one. Even among Hispanic women, 10 percent own and 25 percent want guns.
The study of the Hispanic gun market also found that most are new owners. Of those who own, 60 percent bought a gun in the past two years. The most cited reason was home protection and self defense.
“Hillary Clinton is running a campaign for a different electorate, one that doesn’t exist,” Norquist said, referring to her focus on gun control. “Gun owners feel good about themselves,” he said, but hear from Clinton and Obama “a personal contempt for them.”
But Hispanic gun owners are not in lock step with Second Amendment advocates such as the National Rifle Association, potentially giving the Democrats an opening. In the survey, the NRA had a 2:1 positive-to-negative rating. Remarkably, immigration officials had a much better 4:1 rating.
New Philly flower ‘czar’ sees nation as his garden
Just in time for the iconic Philadelphia Flower Show in March, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has selected a new president with Washington roots and an eye on expanding the 189-year-old organization’s mission.
“We have an aspiration to be a source of insight and expertise in what you do nationally,” said Matt Rader, only the 37th president of the influential organization.
Rader will oversee the March 5-13 flower show with a federal partner, the National Park Service, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. With that teaming, exhibitors plan to feature elements of popular national parks inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The theme is “Explore America.”
The society has been helping improve Philadelphia’s greenscape, but Rader’s experience with the Washington-based Urban Land Institute and National Trust for Historic Preservation gives the organization a leader with a national outlook. He also has been a consultant with the global management consulting firm McKinsey and Co.
Rader is a student of city parks in Washington, where he worked in Georgetown, and Philly, but admits city life and work travel limit his gardening. He promised that he has a green thumb, though. “The house plants I have are alive.”
Secret Service, not Hillary Clinton, named van ‘Scooby Doo’
When Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton hopped into a black van to drive from New York to Iowa in April, aides cheerfully dubbed it “Scooby Doo” and said the candidate dreamed up the name because it looked like the “Mystery Machine.”
Well, no. It turns out that the name originated with Secret Service agents assigned to protect Clinton during her 2008 Senate campaign in New York.
Former agent Dan Bongino, author of the newly released The Fight, A Secret Service Agent’s Inside Account of Security Failings and the Political Machine, told the Examiner that agents mocked her first van with the cartoon name because it was “Scooby Doo brown” and ugly.
“We named it,” he said. “It enabled us to talk in code, we made that up, she didn’t,” he said, adding, “They can’t even tell the truth about dopey things like who named the van.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
