Josh's Weblog: 2006 Election Not As Bad For Gun Owners

2006 Election Not As Bad For Gun Owners

Dave Kopel has the scorecard.

A short summary:

Governors:
Net gubernatorial results: -1.5.
Gains: Ohio.
Losses: Colorado, Maryland, and half of one in New York.

Senate:
Net Senate results: -1.

House:
Net House results: -14, which would drop to -15 if Reichert (WA 8) loses his lead.

I don't like the minuses, but those minuses aren't as bad as they were for the GOP.

Here's in Washington, however, the net loss was quite bad. Joe Waldron of Washington GOAL put it succinctly:

In Olympia it will get real interesting. A Senate split 32D-17R will mean reordering of committees. Senate Judiciary will likely switch from 5D-4R to 6D-3R. That means gun bills (plural) may come out of committee, leading to floor votes. With a 32-17 Senate, I'm not optimistic about holding bills there. The fight will shift to the House, where we have a number of pro-gun Dems. Will it be enough? Good question.

When we put out the call for people to come to Oly for hearings, you'd better come. Legislators are sensitive to this. When we put nearly 400 gunnies into the Senate Judiciary hearing room (and two overflow rooms) two years ago, people noticed.