This was the year of the political engineer. Gunowners showed the power of concentrating resources in key races, rather than thinly spreading effort everywhere - validating our advice that taking care of business in the "people's house" is a necessary step to win state-wide offices. You won't win big races unless you take care of local politics. This year's gains are what we'd have witnessed in 1994 and 1998 had the gun community not ignored down-ticket candidates in favor of winner-take-all crapshoots on the governor's mansion. Our emphasis on General Assembly races was necessary to solve the gubernatorial puzzle and advance our Cause.
On November 5th, eight incumbent Delegates were defeated - all but one of them anti-gunners. The Senate turned over three, basically without fundamental damage to us. In the House, 55 candidates endorsed by Tripwire/MPFO won, and only five of our endorsees lost. That's a 92 percent success rate. In the Senate, 21 of our endorsees won with no losses to anti-gunners, giving us a 96 percent success rate. (Why only get involved in about a third of the legislative races? We largely had no other candidates - an astonishing number of races were unopposed.)
This brings us to about 22 Senators (of the 47 seat body) who can realistically be called pro-gun, plus about 60 (of 141) Delegates- hardly an overwhelming majority, but better than we had for the last eight years. On committees, the House Judiciary lost 7 anti's (3 went up to the Senate, 4 lost in campaigns) and 2 pro-gunners (who declined to run.) The Senate Judicial Proceedings committee lost 3 anti's (to varying degrees due to our involvement), without turnover on the pro-gun side. (Committee assignments will now be juggled. JPR's chair goes to ferociously anti-gun Brian Frosh, but with the possibility of our maintaining a stronger overall presence on the committee.)
Beyond the raw numbers, specific races hold legislators' attention. In a move clearly intended to chill the climate for gun control, we terminated the 28-year political career of House Speaker Casper Taylor, a battle prize suitable for mounting next to our primary ouster of Tim Ferguson. Ferguson's sellout in the Senate two years ago enabled the omnibus gun control package to move forward, and Taylor's iron fist drove the bill through his House without change. Neither incumbent was considered to be anything but secure in his seat, one a top member of leadership with an effectively infinite capability for raising campaign funds, the other a two-term conservative in one of the most right-leaning districts of the state. We made the difference in many races, but none more unambiguously so than in Cumberland and Frederick. That's a factor that cannot be ignored in the new term.