Glenn Poshard has been on a roll in the race for governor, picking up big-time labor endorsements, placing a strong second in the new Tribune poll and airing a folksy new TV ad about his family’s tradition of pinching pennies.
But he had better get his story straight about guns before it comes back to bite him.
The old Glenn, a congressman from the hunter’s paradise of southern Illinois, was no fan of gun control. He voted against the Brady Bill and the federal ban on assault weapons, and voted to repeal the assault weapons ban after it became law. In a 1993 letter to a constituent, he said flat out: “The 2nd Amendment grants all citizens the right to bear arms, and the Supreme Court has never interpreted this amendment in any other way.” That’s wishful thinking, of course. Over the years the high court has indeed upheld restrictions on gun ownership, and it ruled in 1939 that the “obvious purpose” of the 2nd Amendment was “to assure the continuation and render possible the effectiveness” of state militias.
But anyway, that was supposed to be the old Glenn.
Last year, the new Glenn told me he had had a change of heart. After visiting a Chicago hospital emergency room and talking to Democratic leaders such as Paul Simon and Danny Davis, he had changed his mind on assault weapons. “I could not in good faith vote as I voted before. I would have to vote for a ban,” he said.
The new Glenn’s apparent anguish over the sins of the old Glenn only grew from that point on. In August, TV host John Callaway asked him on “Chicago Tonight” what was the biggest mistake he had ever made in public life. Voting against the ban on assault weapons, he said.
But lately, it’s hard to tell which Glenn is running for governor. At a recent forum of the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization, Poshard sounded like his old self. The assault weapons ban didn’t do anything, he said, and President Clinton and the Democrats made a mistake by passing it because it cost them control of the U.S. House.
“This is a ban that the Justice Department said on the front page of the Tribune, just a couple of weeks ago, (that) it was built for failure. That there are hundreds of thousands of copycats (assault weapons) coming into the country, because it had so many holes in it, and we have given up control over labor issues, child care, health care, job training issues and so on because of that one issue,” Poshard said. “I differ with the president. I’m sorry. I think we should be in control of the House.”
Three days later, Poshard was endorsed by the Illinois State Rifle Association. That was one fish he should have tossed back, but he didn’t. He accepted the endorsement.
More Top Picks Best Biometric Pistol Safes
New Glenn or old Glenn, Poshard is creating a problem for himself.
My guess is that he’s bad-mouthing the assault weapons ban because he knows one of his opponents, John Schmidt, a former associate U.S. attorney general, is taking rightful credit for helping to push it through Congress.
If Poshard wanted to be honest about why assault weapons are still being peddled in the U.S., he would say this: “There were holes in that bill because congressmen lived in fear of the National Rifle Association, and they refused to back a better bill. Even after it was watered down, a lot of us wanted to kill it. Even when a handful of Republicans like Illinois Rep. Henry Hyde made a courageous decision to support the assault weapons ban, some of us fear-stricken Democrats wanted to kill it. But I’ve seen the light.”
Then he could note that the number of violent crimes that can be traced to assault weapons has declined since the bill was passed as part of the 1994 crime bill.
At the IVI-IPO session, Poshard complained that his vote in favor of that crime bill cost him plenty because it included the assault weapons ban. “I lost 12 points from the previous election on that one vote,” he said. It’s hard to shed tears, because he won the election. And if southern Illinois is so hell-bent on punishing gun-control lovers, why did it routinely re-elect Paul Simon to Congress?
I like Glenn Poshard. He went to Washington and worked hard, didn’t stuff his pockets with lobbyists’ cash (he won’t take political action committee money), and didn’t mug for the TV cameras. From a conversation with him yesterday, he seems genuinely to be struggling with the gun issue.
He had better get a fix on it fast, though. The Tribune poll placed him second to Roland Burris in the Democratic primary, but a lot of Democratic voters are just getting to know him. And as they start to pay more attention, Poshard is going to have a bigger problem on guns.
He can look at the poll: Illinois voters, particularly Democratic voters, support gun control. When the Tribune’s poll asked Democratic voters if they sided with Poshard or his opponents on gun control, 19 percent backed Poshard and 67 percent backed his opponents.
Or he can just look at Roland Burris, who got stung in his failed 1994 campaign for governor when he espoused a ban on handguns, organized a handgun turn-in day, but then admitted that he owned “a little” handgun himself.
Glenn Poshard has a very good chance of being the Democratic nominee for governor. And he can make an argument that he deserves it. But he better get his story straight on guns.