President Obama’s pledge to snub Democrats who don’t support “common-sense gun reform” doesn’t seem likely to affect all that many sitting Democrats, largely because so many of the Democrats who vote against their party on guns are already gone.
“I will not campaign for, vote for or support any candidate, even in my own party, who does not support common-sense gun reform,” Obama promised in an op-ed published in the New York Times Thursday, two days after he issued 10 executive orders to bolster gun laws. “And if the 90 percent of Americans who do support common-sense gun reforms join me, we will elect the leadership we deserve.”
The White House has not issued any specific criteria beyond the president’s blanket statement for determining who is on President Obama’s “good list” and who is not.
“I don’t know that I have, like, a comprehensive list … but I think based on the discussion that we’ve been having over the last several days, you have a pretty good sense of what the president’s talking about when he talks about ‘common-sense’ gun safety measures,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday when asked to lay out Obama’s criteria for electoral support.
But going by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence’s most recent scorecard, only a dozen Democrats who failed the anti-gun group’s key vote last Congress remain in the Legislative Branch. Only one, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, is in the Senate, and she is not up for re-election this year.
Based on that vote, the following 11 House Democrats could be denied the president’s help on the campaign trail: Reps. Sanford Bishop Jr. of Georgia; Henry Cuellar, Gene Green and Filemon Vela of Texas; Cheri Bustos of Illinois; Ron Kind of Wisconsin; Arizona’s Ann Kirkpatrick and Kyrsten Sinema; Minnesota’s Collin Peterson and Tim Walz; and Kurt Schrader, Oregon.
But it could be even more difficult for Obama to deny support to those Democrats. Earnest would not say if Obama would stop headlining fundraisers for the DCCC or Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee unless those entities pledge to block funds for incumbents and candidates who do not support gun control, and if he keeps helping those committees, some of the money might still flow back to the 11 Democrats.
For example, Walz headed up the DCCC’s Front Line program last cycle, which aims to help the most vulnerable House Democrats. This cycle, the leader of that effort is in step with Obama on gun control, but Sinema and Bustos are two of the 12 Front Line members. The DCCC spends the lion’s share of its fundraising on behalf of Front Line members.
Kind’s inclusion on the Brady Campaign’s lap dog list could be especially problematic. Although Kind is not in a tough re-election campaign, Obama chose Kind’s LaCrosse-based district last summer as the backdrop for a broad economic and political speech. The University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse was chosen partly as a “thank you” to Kind, who has been the Obama’s top lieutenant in the House pushing his trade agenda.
But Earnest downplayed such conflicts when asked about lawmakers in similar positions.
“Well, look, there is no denying the fact that I think that when it comes to most issues, the president agrees with Sen. Heitkamp on them, particularly when it comes to a whole range of economic issues and national security issues,” Earnest said on Friday. “But there are a lot of reasons for them to be on the same page.”
The Brady Campaign, at least, is vowing to carry out the president’s pledge for him.
“The president is doing his part, now we have to do ours because the fight isn’t over,” Brady Campaign President Dan Gross said. “This is the time to watch closely to see who supports sensible gun reform and who, especially in Congress, will fight for the corporate gun lobby.
“Make no mistake, ANY politician who opposes the president’s approach supports arming criminals, domestic abusers and even terrorists with guns and Brady will hold them publicly accountable,” Gross pledged.
