No NRA love for Lt. Dan?
Here’s one more thing to add to the list of strange things about Campaign 2016. The National Rifle Association’s Political Victory Fund sent out orange “Election Alert” postcards this week. The cards announced the NRA-PVF’s endorsements of “Patrick McCrory” and “Buck Newton”.
At first, I thought they were sending me stuff about congressman Patrick McHenry. (I don’t live in HIS district.) It’s an honest mistake. At first glance, I saw the “Patrick” followed by the “Mc”. Who refers to the governor as “Patrick”?
One name that was conspicuously absent: Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest. He’s on the ballot this year. He also is in a tough race. Forest has a strong record of conservative leadership in the Senate.
The NRA has been slowly evolving into a GOPe outfit. I know, from 2012, that the GOPe was not interested in Dan Forest. They worked against him in the primary, and gave him little to no help in the 
general election. I know that the lieutenant governor’s post is pretty much meaningless in the grand scope of things. But if the NRA is declining to endorse — or retracting an endorsement of — Forest, they need to let us know WHY.
The NRA did publish a release on their website, dated Sept. 27, touting an endorsement of Forest. But I had to go to Google to find it. Who else is going to do THAT?
A mailer mentioning Forest’s name right along with McCrory’s and Newton’s would have been a much more valuable asset to Lt. Dan’s reelection team.
Fafter thetop of the natuonal ticket and the top of the sttate ticket Craven County is solidlt behind and working for the re-election od Lt. Gov. Dan Forest. The guy (me) who MC’d the Eastern Carolina/Congressional District 3 C andidate Whistle Stop tour was wearing a Dan Forest T-Shirt with pride! Our three stop event was a smash, with candidates from Justice Edmunds to a local Superior Court candidate in attendance, plus Folwell, , Hunter, LaPaglia, Suter and others who politiced in the breakfast room at Captain Ratty’s and on Middle Street and at our lone Early Voting sire afterwards. NRA screwed up on this one…look fron an apology from Chris Cox. An oversight!
Dare County is ALL IN for Dan Forrest. I to expect Chris Cox right this wrong.
Browny Douglas
My household received a large orange card (1/2 sheet) with McCrory, Forest, Newton, and Folwell stated as ‘A’ rated by the NRA. I also received two other smaller cards, one with McCrory & Newton, one with Meredith.
Your article is in error. The NRA-PVF had endorsed Dan Forest for Lt. Governor and is actively circulating it in various forms of print media. Please issue a correction. Thank you.
Hal Weatherman
Campaign Manager
Lt. Governor Dan Forest
What would you have me correct, Hal? I am sitting here looking at the orange card that does not mention DAN FOREST anywhere.
I did mention that the NRA put a Sept. 27 endorsement on their website. (And put in the link)
I know i am not the only one who got this mailer. It’s kind of strange they would send out something so close to election day that includes Buck, Pat and NO DAN.
I’m hoping the NRA will speak up about this. A mailer during early voting is much more valuable than a press release on their website in late September.
I dropped my membership when they failed to oppose the Sotomayor and Kagan High Court nominations. I knew right then that they were as unreliable as the Congressional Republicans and just as worthless.
When it comes to gun rights, there are more dependable national 2nd amendment organizations than NRA. The NRA has had a bad history of pandering to incumbents and pandering to the establishment.
The national groups I trust on gun rights issues are the Gunowners of America and the National Association for Gun Rights. On the state level, there is Grassroots North Carolina, which is very dependable on 2nd Amendment issues.
The NRA is the organization that the broad masses most readily recognize, however. One positive thing this election is their refusal to endorse a whole raft of RINO’s in the NC House.
One positive thing I have noticed with the NRA legislative endorsements this time, is they are backing off their tendency to pander to incumbents, even if the incumbents were squishy on the 2nd amendment. There is a big list of GOP incumbents who were not endorsed in the general election. The NRA did not endorse the Democrat, just stayed out of the race if the incumbent scored less than A- on their voting record. I was sorry to see conservative incumbent Marilyn Avila on the non-endorsed list (B rated), but most on the list were RINO’s. That should indicate an NRA non-endorsement in their next primary as well, which should help open the door to conservative primary challenges.
The NON-endorsed list includes:
Linda Johnson
John Fraley
Chuck McGrady
William Brawley
Sarah Stevens
Harry Warren
Julia Howard
Pat McElraft
Frank Iler
Gary Pendleton
Stephen Ross
Dennis Riddell
Craig Horn
Patricia Hurley
Lee Zachary
Allen McNeill
Samuel Watford
Rena Turner
Joshua Dobson
Hugh Blackwell
Some of these have very liberal records on other issues like Harry Warren on illegal aliens and Chuck McGrady on radical environmentalism. Others like John Fraley and Linda Johnson are all-round liberals.
This list should be the start of a target list for the GOP House primaries next time, as it indicates the liklihood of NRA helping the challenge.
It really says something about the difference between the GOP House and GOP Senate that not a single GOP Senate incumbent failed to receive an NRA endorsement while a whole raft of them failed to do so in the House.
The Senate has a history of being the conservative fire wall, and it seems to be on gun rights as well as on other things.