FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 6/27/16
CONTACT – johnharris@tennesseefirearms.com
TFA Questions “Endorsements” Prior to Tennessee
Primaries
Offers That Such “Endorsements” Contribute Little to Voter Education
NASHVILLE, TN: John Harris, Executive Director,
Tennessee Firearms Association, expressed the organization's caution to voters about the rash of
“endorsements” coming out of some State and National policy and advocacy groups. For the past three weeks, scarcely a news cycle
has passed without some sort of statement from a one group or another about an official
“endorsement”. With less than five weeks
until the August 4 primary, candidates, primarily incumbents, often use these statements in an attempt to influence
voter decisions.
“Having been involved in Second Amendment advocacy in
Tennessee for over 20 years, TFA has seldom “endorsed” a candidate,” said
Harris. “We put our money where our
mission is. We support both incumbents
and opponents based upon their efforts to carry and co-sponsor legislation,
support legislation, champion the 2nd Amendment, and TFA opposes
incumbents who have proven that they do not.”
One need only pay passing attention
to some of these endorsements to realize that they rarely given to opponents to incumbents even if the challenger has a clear history of being stronger on an issue. If an elected official is not friendly to a
policy group, the group generally does nothing rather than endorse a challenger.
TFA Member Jeff Hartline knows this
all too well. “When I ran for Congress
in 2010, all these groups demanded to have their surveys filled out and many
asked for personal meetings. In the end,
none of them supported the long term Democrat incumbent, but none of them chose to
support any other candidate for fear of alienating the eventual primary winner if
they ‘chose poorly’”. Hartline
continued, “Candidates running against incumbents whom I have helped during the past five
years have experienced exactly the same treatment -- reams of surveys, minuscule
endorsement and even less in monetary contributions to challenge an incumbent.”
TFA has not made its support
decisions based upon incumbency. Again,
TFA Director John Harris. “Our mission
at TFA is to move 2nd Amendment legislation without regard for
incumbents or challengers. We’re not
afraid to support challengers who are running against incumbents who either do
not support our mission or who use their offices to derail bills that advance
the citizens’ right to ‘keep and bear arms’. Similarly, TFA is not hesitant about supporting incumbents who are strong even if they are in the minority party or principled incumbents are not considered by the party's leadership to be 'team players' who only do whatever they are told by leadership.”
Harris continued, “Some advocacy
groups, be they State or National, exhibit little courage at times by taking
the easy path in order to avoid the wrath of leadership or an incumbent. Just because an incumbent
has cast one vote in your favor the past several years is often reason enough
to ‘endorse’ that candidate, even when a challenger has demonstrated a more
committed position for their particular issue.
The fact is, the committee process in the Tennessee Legislature, particularly in the House of Representatives, works to shield some incumbents from being exposed on their real views by letting them avoid having to make votes on the public record.” In that type of an environment, endorsements based only on a few choreographed public votes or bill sponsorships can easily mislead voters to believe that an incumbent is good on an issue when sometimes they are the source of the problem.
“We have made it a habit to get in
the fight with candidates who support our mission. We do not put our finger into the wind. At TFA, we put our finger on the support
‘trigger’. We believe if you’re afraid
to pull the trigger, you’ll never hit the target.”
The Tennessee
Firearms Association was founded in 1995 and formed to defend the right to keep
and bear arms with a specific focus on Tennessee. The TFA is Tennessee’s only no-compromise gun group. www.tennesseefirearms.com
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