Today, the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) sent the following announcement out to its 10,000+ membership, in reference to Jerry Kilgore's refusal to answer its candidate survey on gun issues. As you probably are aware, Tim Kaine was the only candidate to complete the group?s survey. To make matters worse, the Kilgore campaign then proceeded to insult the VCDL's president, saying he "has no credibility on Second Amendment issues and that is why we did not participate." Uh huh. Anyway, we thought we'd share the letter (bolding added for emphasis) with Raising Kaine readers. Enjoy!
The Virginia Citizens Defense League is non-partisan. We are only asking all the candidates to take a position on specific issues of concern to Virginia's gun owners, so that gun owners might make an informed choice. We believe this to be a reasonable request, and remain perplexed by the hostility that this has generated from the Kilgore campaign.The emails on which I have been cc'ed from gun owners across the state run the gamut from *pleading* with Mr. Kilgore to answer the VCDL survey and take a stand on gun rights, to furious gun owners saying that they have removed Kilgore campaign signs from their lawns and offices and Kilgore bumper stickers from their vehicles.
The sheer frustration of gun owners is apparent in various Internet chat rooms. Here are a few samplings: http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=8&f=24&t=211454
http://www.packing.org/community/laws_politics/listview/2632BTW, the Kilgore campaign web site no longer has email links or contact info for the key campaign staff. Too much incoming email? Technical snafu?
On the positive side Kilgore's site has put up a Second Amendment item link on the front page of the web site. I don't recall that being there before.
Russ Potts' web site makes no mention of firearms that I could find.
Tim Kaine has a Second Amendment section on his site.
The VCDL surveys (including Tim Kaine's survey) and the Delegate voting record for the last two years will be posted on the VCDL web site next week. I will send an alert as soon as it is up. VCDL's vice president, Jim Snyder, is working on this. I have seen a preliminary web page and it is going to be easy to use and really look great!
Candidates Kilgore and Potts still have time to get their surveys in. But that time is up the second that Kaine's survey, and the other Delegate surveys, are posted on the VCDL site.
Finally, I was asked, and quite fairly, by a member, "Would VCDL have put up this big of a fight to get a survey from *Kaine* if Kilgore had turned in his survey, but Kaine had not?"
YOU BET! If a candidate for Governor is running on being gun friendly and is asking for the support of gun owners, we are going to fight to get that candidate to turn in his or her survey until either we get it or time is up.
Tim Kaine stepped up to the podium. Now the question is will Jerry Kilgore and Russ Potts be no-shows or are they going to help us make an informed decision come November 8th?
By the way, can someone please explain to us how ticking off the membership of one of the top 2-3 most politically active Second Amendment groups in Virginia represents smart campaign strategy by the Kilgore team?