Budd Schroder Albany report Feb. 3, 2010

Albany report Feb. 3, 2010
by Budd Schroder
SCOPEny.org Board Chariman
and NRA Director

I spent two days at the CPAC meeting in Albany and talked to several members of the WNY delegation. Volker, Stachowski, Young, Maziarz, Gabryzak, Hawley, Ranzenhoffer, Schimminger Bacalles, and Corwin. All said they will be sticking hard with us. I spoke to Mark Schroeder earlier in the week and he is getting geared up to fight against the bad bills on the floor of the Assembly when the bills come up. I will be meeting with Francine DelMonte in two weeks and am having lunch with Lisa Yeager (Sen Thompson's legal counsel) tomorrow. The general feeling I got from the speeches and the politicians is that there can be a big upset next year and could be a really good year for Republicans. We can be a big help.

While it will be difficult to beat Shumer (but several said it could happen with the right candidate) we have a good shot of ousting Gillibrand. This is true if Ford enters a primary and he can cause some serious damage. I spoke to Bruce Blakeman for a few minutes and he told me he is pro-gun. From his presentation, he could be a good candidate and would have a good chance to get rid of Gillibrand. I think if we could get a group to work together and set up a means to get the word out, something like SASAG (Sportsmen Against Schumer And Gillibrand) and get our own email list to keep people informed and share ideas that could be used by activists to write letters to the editor and county chairmen for all parties, get on talk radio shows and to visit gun clubs, or at least, speak regularly at the monthly meetings, we could have a great impact on the election results.

I give a monthly report to both of the gun clubs where I am a member. We could get a sign up sheet at the gun clubs and ask for interested members to give us their name and email address. It could also be used at gun shows. It could also give us access to people on the list for members. With each message we send, we could attach a SCOPE application for them to join, or if they are a member, make it easy to sign up another member.

Doug Hoffman spoke about his almost win for Gillibrand's congressional seat. His is an NRA member and didn't get endorsed by NRA because his Republican opponent had a good pro-gun record as an assemblywoman. I think that we can be a great help in that race because with only the Conservative line he lost by only two points. They believe he would have won if Scozzafava had not endorsed the Democrat the week before the election. Personally, I think we should make a concerted effort to get involved in that race and get a better congressman in that district.
There are only two Republican Congressmen in NY, Peter King, who is not a pro-gun legislator, and Chris Lee who is.
I spoke to Chris and we will be meeting in his office in the very near future. His is one of the good guys.

Daniel Donovan, a DA from NYC spoke about the aftermath of 911 and I asked him what was his definition of an illegal gun. He said it was a gun smuggled in from VA and used in a crime or one that is outside the parameters of the NY State laws. I couldn't pin him down any finer because of time constraints, but I think he includes registration in his definition although he "believes in the Second Amendment.

I think we should be pushing hard the pro-gun bills like hands on training and no restrictions and push them hard. This could be the proper year to get them through because of the scare in MA when a Republican took the Kennedy seat. That gave the Republicans and Conservatives in NY a lot of optimism for winning in NY.

The Conservative Party Platform has four pro-gun statements in it. I will copy them and put them on the message board later.
Please give some thoughts and input to the idea of SASAG to use as an election tool. If we do this, I think we can help not only New York, but SCOPE as well.

Budd