How could the NRA be fooled? Guns was one of the two main issues McGreevey based his campaign against Schundler on.
Thank you for the post. I might cancel my NRA membership now.
Alleged deal by McGreevey to block 'smart gun' bill embitters activists
Friday, November 08, 2002
By WENDY RUDERMAN
Trenton Bureau
Debra Wachspress says she felt betrayed by Governor McGreevey.
The 36-year-old gun control activist supported McGreevey's gubernatorial bid. Wachspress and other New Jersey members of the Million Mom March put "McGreevey for Governor" signs on their front lawns. They talked him up on soccer fields. They sent out e-mails telling hundreds of residents to vote for him. They stood by his side at news conferences.
They believed in him because he promised to sign a bill mandating so-called "smart guns" that can be fired only by their owner.
"It was a no-brainer at the time," said Wachspress, a Trenton-area mother of three.
So Wachspress and others who vouched for McGreevey bristled when they learned last week that he had reportedly cut a secret deal with the National Rifle Association during last fall's gubernatorial race to block the bill. In exchange, gun groups reportedly pledged not to mobilize against McGreevey on Election Day.
"I felt highly betrayed," Wachspress said. "He thought he could play both sides and not get caught. He got caught. ... Maybe we wouldn't have gone out of our way to drive to every corner of the state to stand with him at press conferences if we had known."
McGreevey moved this week to mollify the miffed gun control advocates Thursday, when a smart-gun bill cleared the same Assembly committee where it was bottled up last month. But the episode may have caused long-term political damage with activists, who are now wary of the candidate they once so enthusiastically endorsed. They now plan to closely monitor his moves.
"We'll forgive him if he signs the bill and if he stops cutting secret deals with the gun lobby that are unbeknowst to us," Wachspress said.
Republicans, who have long been painted as puppets of the gun lobby, now argue that McGreevey can no longer attack them in future campaigns. To do so, McGreevey would risk being ridiculed as a hypocrite, they say. Party officials went on the offensive Thursday.
"The bill will ultimately end up getting passed, but [it's about] the credibility of an individual that goes out and makes a deal trying to placate both sides on an issue and then gets caught,'' said Republican Senate President John O. Bennet of Monmouth County.
McGreevey spokesman Kevin Davitt denied that the governor made any backroom deal with the NRA.
"There was no deal," Davitt said. "He is going to sign [the bill] when it gets to his desk."
McGreevey has acknowledged that he spoke with NRA leaders about the bill, but said they simply discussed an exemption for guns used in shooting competitions. Greg Costa, an NRA lobbyist who reportedly helped broker the deal, declined to comment.
The bill released from the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee requires each new handgun sold in New Jersey to have a mechanism that prevents anyone other than its owner from firing it. The technology is not yet commercially available. The bill would require that all guns be equipped with the technology three years after it hits the market and the state Attorney General declares them safe.
The bill exempts guns used by police officers and guns used in established shooting competitions. The bill also establishes a commission to study whether law enforcement personnel should be required to carry smart guns.
Two weeks ago, the bill stalled when the committee's chairman, Assemblyman Peter J. Barnes Jr., D-Middlesex - a sponsor of the smart gun bill - unexpectedly abstained. At the time, Barnes said he couldn't vote for the bill because he believed the measure should apply to guns police officers carry.
Bill supporters immediately accused Democrats, including McGreevey, of "caving in" to the NRA and said the last-minute change offered by Barnes was an excuse to kill the bill, which Barnes vehemently denied.
"There are a great number of soccer moms who are watching this issue closely," said Kim Ward Basco, president of the Middlesex County chapter of the Million Mom March. "And we are not crazed mothers in minivans driving through McDonald's. We're reasonable people fighting for gun violence prevention."
When Wachspress returned home on Halloween after stumping for Sen. Frank Lautenberg, she found a message from McGreevey on her answering machine. He promised to move the bill forward, Wachspress said.
"He knew that he had to reach out to us because he was up to some stuff that he shouldn't have been up to," Wachspress said. "What the message said to us was that we've got clout. He doesn't want to anger us. He needs us. That came across pretty loud and clear."
On the same day, bill supporters were meeting with the governor's staff behind closed doors.
The results of those talks emerged Thursday in an amended version of the bill that cleared the committee 5-1, with Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morris Township, the lone dissenter. Carroll said it was "silly" to mandate something that doesn't yet exist and called the technology "science fiction, right out of 'Star Trek.'"
The long-stalled bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, and Assemblyman Matthew Ahearn, D-Fair Lawn, now moves to the full Assembly for a vote.
"I feel pretty good right now," Weinberg said.
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?level_3_id=5&page=5579444I wonder who the Deputy NRA Director in Jersey is. Jersey should call Fairfax and tell them to keep him out of Jersey.
