3/26/2013

Question: Why does the Obama administration pressure vulnerable state house Democrats in Colorado to vote for a state gun law but not similarly push US Senate Demcrats to vote for federal laws?

Obama just doesn't seem to want to lobby individual Senators and put pressure on them to vote for gun control. 
Reid says that the measure is some 20 votes short of passage, meaning that some 15 Senate Democrats are bucking the president.

Obama seems unlikely to do what is required to win Senate passage of such a measure, namely to pressure vulnerable Democrats to switch their votes and take a politically risky stance ahead of Midterm elections. There’s no credible threat to Republicans with Democrats so deeply divided on the issue.
Liberals were furious when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spiked the most aggressive gun control bill, and given the muted reaction from the White House, one assumes that Reid at least consulted the president before deep sixing an important presidential priority. . . .
When I was in Colorado a month ago, the big news was how the Obama administration was pushing state House Democrats to vote for gun bills that they had already promised to vote against.  I was told more than is show below in the Fox News piece in that I was told that Vice President Biden promised to help out Democrats who voted for the gun control bills, but that there was an implied threat that Obama would help get primary opponents to run against Democrats who voted against the bills.  Here is what Fox News reported on Biden calling state House members in Colorado:
Republican lawmakers in Colorado say they want the White House to stay out of their state battle over gun control, accusing Vice President Biden of personally leaning on Democratic legislators for their votes in a tight campaign that could change the national conversation on gun rights.
Republican state Rep. Carole Murray told FoxNews.com she doesn’t appreciate “East Coast politics” interfering in her state. 
The concern comes ahead of a tense Senate vote -- which could come late next week -- and after a vote in the House that prompted the White House to take the unusual step of lobbying wavering Democrats. Biden’s office confirmed to FoxNews.com he made four phone calls to Colorado Democrats, two in moderate districts, but did not say what they were about. . . .

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