I thought gun control wasn't a flashpoint, but then, he's talking about Kalif.
"I'm a mom, I have a college education, but I'd never been politically active," Kelly said. or, as Ann Coulter said about MMMs, "I don't need a brain, I have a womb!".
Also note the term "moderate" in referring to Gov. Gray Davis.
http://chblue.com/Article.asp?ID=712
Forget Soccer Moms: Gun Control Surburban Moms May Affect Election 2000
By BRAD SMITH
VENTURA, Calif. -- A year to the day after her little boy came within inches of being murdered because of where he went to day care, Laura Kelly is still fighting to reach her neighbors about gun control.
"People really have a sense of peace and calm around here, but it can happen here," said the Thousand Oaks resident, who last Aug. 10 had to retrieve her then-3-year-old son Hunter from the blood and chaos of the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills.
"I'm a mom, I have a college education, but I'd never been politically active," Kelly said. "But now ... I don't mean to sound alarmist, but it can happen here. It can happen anywhere."
That realization, and the effort that volunteers like Kelly are putting into the gun-control debate, may be enough to tip the scales Election Day in favor of Democrats over Republicans, analysts said.
"It's one of the points in which people in the middle - the swing vote - can be reached," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a Claremont Graduate University political scientist. "Gun control is one of those issues on which independent voters can be swayed, particularly the suburbanites who are afraid for their children." It is also an issue where clear differences exist between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George Bush.
Democrats have talked up votes against gun control that Bush's running mate, former Wyoming Congressman Dick Cheney, made while in the House, and Republicans have responded.
"Bush is trying to co-opt it," said Jack Pitney, a Claremont McKenna College government professor and former GOP consultant.
"He made a special point at the convention of saying there needs to be better enforcement of existing gun laws, and Cheney has said, despite his own history on Second Amendment votes, he could support issues such as trigger locks," Pitney said. "So they're trying to take the edge off."
The Bush campaign did not comment, but Gore staffers intend to publicize the differences.
"The problem with Bush, unlike Gore who has been very specific on the issue, is he has not laid out what he would do," Gore spokesman Alejandro Cabrera said. "We do know some things about Cheney."
The gun-control issue has been a problem for GOP candidates in California, where 54 electoral votes are in play. Analysts cite 1998's 20-point rout of conservative Republican and then-Attorney General Dan Lungren by moderate Democrat Gray Davis in the state's gubernatorial race. "It's a difficult balancing act (for Republicans), because in terms of overall numbers the American public tends to support greater restrictions on firearms," Pitney said. "But traditionally, the intensity has been on the side of the (gun-control) opponents."
Today, Kelly is president of the Ventura County chapter of the Million Mom March, which sponsored a series of nationwide rallies Mother's Day in support of stricter gun-control legislation.
The effort was organized after the Aug. 10 shooting spree at the Granada Hills community center that left five people, including four children, wounded. An avowed white supremacist, Buford Furrow, faces charges of murder and attempted murder in the shootings and the subsequent slaying of Joseph Ileto, a Filipino-American mail carrier. Furrow is in federal custody; his trial is set to begin in 2001.
Hunter, a tow-headed 4-year-old, now attends a different school closer to home.
"He's gotten this shy thing lately - I had the news on, which I try never to do, and he saw some news clip (of the shooting) ..." Kelly said. "And he asked, 'Is that me on television again, Mom?' "
Kelly and her group will be active the rest of the year. Rallies are planned this weekend in Woodland Hills and Los Angeles to commemorate the shootings, and they are involved in plans for a silent memorial at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.
"It takes a toll ... and I'm sure that's how the (firearms lobby) might view it, they're just moms and they'll get bored, " Kelly said. "But they have no idea of the dedication and tenacity of the women involved in the Million Mom March."
© 2000 Scripps Howard News Service
------------------
"The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside
the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light." (Romans 13:12)
"I'm a mom, I have a college education, but I'd never been politically active," Kelly said. or, as Ann Coulter said about MMMs, "I don't need a brain, I have a womb!".
Also note the term "moderate" in referring to Gov. Gray Davis.
http://chblue.com/Article.asp?ID=712
Forget Soccer Moms: Gun Control Surburban Moms May Affect Election 2000
By BRAD SMITH
VENTURA, Calif. -- A year to the day after her little boy came within inches of being murdered because of where he went to day care, Laura Kelly is still fighting to reach her neighbors about gun control.
"People really have a sense of peace and calm around here, but it can happen here," said the Thousand Oaks resident, who last Aug. 10 had to retrieve her then-3-year-old son Hunter from the blood and chaos of the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills.
"I'm a mom, I have a college education, but I'd never been politically active," Kelly said. "But now ... I don't mean to sound alarmist, but it can happen here. It can happen anywhere."
That realization, and the effort that volunteers like Kelly are putting into the gun-control debate, may be enough to tip the scales Election Day in favor of Democrats over Republicans, analysts said.
"It's one of the points in which people in the middle - the swing vote - can be reached," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a Claremont Graduate University political scientist. "Gun control is one of those issues on which independent voters can be swayed, particularly the suburbanites who are afraid for their children." It is also an issue where clear differences exist between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George Bush.
Democrats have talked up votes against gun control that Bush's running mate, former Wyoming Congressman Dick Cheney, made while in the House, and Republicans have responded.
"Bush is trying to co-opt it," said Jack Pitney, a Claremont McKenna College government professor and former GOP consultant.
"He made a special point at the convention of saying there needs to be better enforcement of existing gun laws, and Cheney has said, despite his own history on Second Amendment votes, he could support issues such as trigger locks," Pitney said. "So they're trying to take the edge off."
The Bush campaign did not comment, but Gore staffers intend to publicize the differences.
"The problem with Bush, unlike Gore who has been very specific on the issue, is he has not laid out what he would do," Gore spokesman Alejandro Cabrera said. "We do know some things about Cheney."
The gun-control issue has been a problem for GOP candidates in California, where 54 electoral votes are in play. Analysts cite 1998's 20-point rout of conservative Republican and then-Attorney General Dan Lungren by moderate Democrat Gray Davis in the state's gubernatorial race. "It's a difficult balancing act (for Republicans), because in terms of overall numbers the American public tends to support greater restrictions on firearms," Pitney said. "But traditionally, the intensity has been on the side of the (gun-control) opponents."
Today, Kelly is president of the Ventura County chapter of the Million Mom March, which sponsored a series of nationwide rallies Mother's Day in support of stricter gun-control legislation.
The effort was organized after the Aug. 10 shooting spree at the Granada Hills community center that left five people, including four children, wounded. An avowed white supremacist, Buford Furrow, faces charges of murder and attempted murder in the shootings and the subsequent slaying of Joseph Ileto, a Filipino-American mail carrier. Furrow is in federal custody; his trial is set to begin in 2001.
Hunter, a tow-headed 4-year-old, now attends a different school closer to home.
"He's gotten this shy thing lately - I had the news on, which I try never to do, and he saw some news clip (of the shooting) ..." Kelly said. "And he asked, 'Is that me on television again, Mom?' "
Kelly and her group will be active the rest of the year. Rallies are planned this weekend in Woodland Hills and Los Angeles to commemorate the shootings, and they are involved in plans for a silent memorial at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.
"It takes a toll ... and I'm sure that's how the (firearms lobby) might view it, they're just moms and they'll get bored, " Kelly said. "But they have no idea of the dedication and tenacity of the women involved in the Million Mom March."
© 2000 Scripps Howard News Service
------------------
"The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside
the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light." (Romans 13:12)
