Pima County GOP Raffle: Win a Glock 23 (Seriously!)

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I have been receiving angry e-mails this morning about the Pima County Republican Party's online newsletter, e-Tracks [PDF] (August 26, 2011), which includes this fundraiser advertisement:

You know, at some point you can no longer dismiss this as just insensitivity or thoughtlessness. This is purposefully malicious. It is as if these Tea-Publicans are laughing at or celebrating the massacre that occured here in Tucson on January 8 at the hands of a madman with a Glock. These people are lacking any human decency.

As Jack Welch said to Sen. Joe McCarthy: "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

See the Huffington Post report here Alex Brant-Zawadzki: Pima County Repubs Raffle Glock As Fundraiser; Same Gun Type Used In Tucson Shooting.

See the USA Today report here GOP raffles gun in Rep. Giffords' district.

See the Politico report here Ariz. GOP raffling off Glock gun - POLITICO.com.

Lots of bad national press for the Pima County GOP.

By the way, the e-Tracks newsletter also announces that the special election to elect a new Pima County Republican Party chair after the ouster of Brian Miller in July will be held on Thursday, September 8 at the Sabbar Shrine Center at 450 S. Tucson Boulevard. Two candidates have submitted applications to the nomination committee: Carolyn Cox and Pat Kilburn, both previously candidates for political office. Candidates may be nominated from the floor.

The candidates should have to answer where they stand on this fundraiser.

UPDATE: Talking Points Memo has more. Tucson Republican Leader Slams County GOP For Giffords Gun Raffle | TPMDC:

Eyebrows shot up all over the country Thursday following news that that the Republican Party in Pima County, AZ — home to Tucson and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' (D) district — is raffling off a Glock similar to the one used to shoot Giffords in the head in January.

In Tucson, the condemnation of the plan was universal and bi-partisan.

"There's a woman who has a bullet in the brain and who everybody is wishing a full recovery," Brian Miller, the immediate past chair of the Pima County GOP told TPM. "I don't think that raffling off a firearm right now is probably the right way to go."

Miller says the people who took over the party — and booted him from his position . . . are from the "my way or the highway" wing of the GOP who don't pay much thought to the political fallout from their actions.

While he said that raffling off a firearm to raise money is something he did himself when he ran (and lost) in the 2010 Republican primary in Gifford's district, it's not something he'd do now.

But it's the kind of thing the folks in charge of things at the Pima County GOP may become known for, and to the party's detriment, he said.

"The people who are running the Pima County GOP right now aren't exactly known for their ability to feel the political pulse," he said. "Politically, it's kind of a silly thing to do."

* * *

"It shows a stunning lack of understanding," Pima County Democratic Party chair Jeff Rogers told TPM. "It's kind of a slap in the face for a community that's still trying to recover."

Rogers said his party generally auctions off dinners with politicians, "pottery or nice dinners" to raise money. He suggested that following the Giffords shooting, the Pima County GOP may have been better off going with "golf clubs…or maybe an iPad." If the GOP had to raffle a gun, Rogers said, "why not make it a shotgun or a hunting rifle?"

Rogers praised Miller's leadership of the GOP following the Giffords shooting and joined the former chair in condemning the new leadership of the county party responsible for the raffle.

"It's just so extremely insensitive," he said, "and it shows the kind of extremists we have in our midst."