Gun Control and Electoral Math – The Scoreboard
Two years ago, I wrote a piece about electoral math and gun control, and how it was unlikely that we would have any serious national level gun control… and we have not (state level is another story unfortunately).
In that, I included a list of democratic senators who were up for re-election this year, their position on gun control, and how “at risk” their seat was:
Stupidity, Politics, and Electoral Math
So, now that we have the results of all of their elections, let’s see what the last two years hath wrought among them:
XX = Unelected (or resigned and replaced by Republican)
- XX – Alaska – Mark Begich – Very Pro Gun – very unsafe seat
- XX – Arkansas – Mark Pryor – neutral – very unsafe seat
- XX – Colorado – Mark Udall – neutral – not a safe seat
- Delaware – Chris Coons – Very anti-gun – safe seat
- Hawaii – UNKNOWN (special election to replace Daniel Inouye) – safe seat
- Illinois – Dick Durbin – Very anti-gun – safe seat
- XX – Iowa – Tom Harkin – Very anti-gun – iffy, can’t afford to screw up
- XX – Louisiana – Mary Landrieu – neutral – very unsafe seat
- Massachusetts – UNKNOWN (special election to replace John Kerry) – safe seat
- Michigan – Carl Levin – very anti-gun – safe seat
- Minnesota – Al Franken – very anti-gun – not a safe seat
- XX – Montana – Max Baucus – very pro-gun – iffy, can’t afford to screw up
- New Hampshire – Jeanne Shaheen – very anti-gun – not a safe seat
- New Jersey – Frank Lautenberg – very anti-gun – safe seat
- New Mexico – Tom Udall – slightly anti-gun – safe seat
- XX – North Carolina – Kay Hagan – very anti-gun – not a safe seat
- Oregon – Jeff Merkley – very anti-gun – safe seat
- Rhode Island – Jack Reed – very anti-gun – safe seat
- XX – South Dakota – Tim Johnson – very pro-gun – very unsafe seat
- Virginia – Mark Warner – very pro-gun – not a safe seat
- XX – West Virginia – Jay Rockefeller – moderately anti-gun – very unsafe seat
Lotta XX’s there… 9 actually, out of 21 (10 of those 21 were considered safe seats, barely challenged by Republicans). Pretty much every anti-gun democrat that wasn’t in a safe seat, except Shaheen and Franken (and they’re kinda weird cases).
And THAT folks, is why we will not have any significant gun control on the national level any time soon.