The Illinois House of Representatives has created a new committee to address inequalities in the state’s criminal justice system, while the chairman of the new committee faces his own legal problems.
State Rep. LaShawn Ford is the chairman of the new Restorative Justice Committee.
He’s also been indicted for bank fraud.
Hey, this is Illinois, people.
* But there does seem to be a legit reason to create the committee…
Ford’s fellow Democratic committee members also expressed a desire to use the committee to discuss the variety of issues that relate to the criminal justice system.
“We’ve seen in the debate after the terrible shooting incident in Connecticut how issues of criminal law and mental health and, you know, other different categories sort of intersect,” said State. Rep. Greg Harris. “And I think we need to take a holistic look at all of those things.” […]
“I think often in government, things tend to go in silos where you look at things based on the source who uses the funds and there’s a lot of interrelationships between levels of education and levels of job preparedness and the availability of jobs in the community along with mental health issues and substance abuse and crime,” he said. “So to look at them just in a - isolate the little box may not give you the whole picture.”
After figuring out that she had gotten on the wrong South Side bus last March 9, Cook County Judge Cynthia Brim got off somewhere on 47th Street and “marched for justice towards downtown.”
It was one in a bizarre series of events in a day that ended with her arrest on battery charges after allegedly shoving a sheriff’s deputy outside the Daley Center court complex. That story was told in the testimony that Judge Liam Brennan heard at Brim’s trial Monday at the Daley Center. He decided that Brim — who has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type — was not guilty by reason of insanity. […]
Brim, 54, didn’t talk with reporters after the verdict, but her attorney, James D. Montgomery Sr., said she was eager to get back to work.
Cook County Board President did a robocall for Brim and other judges last year to urge their retentiion.
* I’m not as averse to pork projects as some are. The debilitated, deadlocked US Congress is an example of what happens when you remove pork projects from the legislative give and take. It’s a long tradition, and it works…
An emergency spending proposal being debated in the Capitol this week isn’t just about building new roads and protecting vulnerable children.
Rather, tucked into what could become a package worth more than $1.3 billion is $115,000 to help launch a high school basketball hall of fame in Danville.
The 92-page spending blueprint also contains $1 million to help build a new children’s museum in downtown Springfield, despite the failure of a similar facility just blocks away several years ago.
And, it has $167,148 for a museum in the Southern Illinois town of Rosiclare dedicated to the region’s fluorspar miners.
In a vote Monday, a House panel endorsed the added spending, which is designed to patch holes in the state budget in the second half of the state’s fiscal year. It includes $675 million for various transportation projects, $25 million for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and $12 million for community mental health programs.
Walnut Point State Park north of Oakland and Lincoln Trail State Park south of Marshall have temporarily stopped taking reservations for camp sites due to a staffing shortage but are otherwise open for use.
The two state parks stopped taking reservations about a week ago, said Tom Hintz, who is site superintendent for both Walnut Point and Lincoln Trail. Hintz said he does not have the staffing available at this time time to handle reservations, adding that he is the only full-time employee available for both sites. Hintz said reservations made before last week are still being honored, adding that Walnut Point already has some camp site reservations for the spring. He said Lincoln Trail does not have an reservations in place.
Illinois Department of Natural Resources spokesman Chris McCloud said Walnut Point and Lincoln Trail, like other state parks, have been affected by the DNR’s land staff being reduced by 50 percent during the last 10 years due to state budget cuts.
McCloud said staffing, facility maintenance, and other needs at Illinois state parks will receive a financial lift later in 2013 when the state starts to collect proceeds from a $2 increase in license plate fees that will generate an estimated $18 million to $22 million for natural resources usage.
A proposal before the state legislature could keep shoppers from having to pay more when using credit cards. Chris Slaby reports.
The plan would prohibit Illinois retailers from adding an extra fee to purchases made with credit cards. It comes after a federal settlement gave businesses the go-ahead to charge up to four-percent extra on credit card transactions, unless states prohibit them from doing so.
So far, ten states have banned the surcharge. […]
David Vite is president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association. He says Illinois consumers have nothing to worry about, because Illinois stores will not implement the surcharge.
VITE: “Their interest is in lowering prices to their customer, not increasing costs to the customer.”
Consumer groups, though, say they’re concerned retailers will wait for things to cool down before implementing the fees.
* The Question: Despite the assurances from IRMA, should Illinois ban retailer credit card surcharges? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
The son of one of Illinois’ most powerful political families said the plans of a daughter of another political dynasty won’t affect his bid for governor.
Bill Daley told the Daily Herald Monday that “what the attorney general does or what she doesn’t do, that’s not going to affect my decision.” However, he acknowledged, “I know people don’t believe that.” [Emphasis added.]
We’ll see.
* Was there a meeting between Daley and Speaker Madigan to discuss the race? Brown’s not saying…
Steve Brown, Michael Madigan’s spokesman, would not say whether he and Bill Daley have met to discuss who would be on the Democratic primary ballot. Madigan “makes a practice of not commenting on private meetings,” Brown said.
Daley told the Daily Herald that he’d make a decision by April.
* By the way, check out Lisa Madigan’s campaign Twitter page. Her posting frequency has increased a lot in the past few weeks. Not saying this is a sign of anything. Just saying.
* The Tamms super-max prison kept inmates isolated almost all the time. That treatment led human rights groups to label the incarceration torture. When I visited some prisons several years ago, including Tamms, I couldn’t help but notice that the super-max prison was cleaner than the other prisons and, also unlike the other prisons, had decent climate control, wasn’t crowded and was quiet.
So, now that the super-max prisoners have been transferred to Pontiac, some have declared a hunger strike…
The Chicago-based Uptown People’s Law Center said an estimated 10 prisoners are participating in the strike, which comes about a month after the inmates were transferred out of Tamms and into the older facility in Livingston County.
Key among their grievances is a lack of heat because of some of the retrofitting that was done in order to prepare Pontiac for the prisoners from Tamms. The prisoners are complaining that plexiglass panels installed on their cell doors block heat from entering their living areas, said Brian Nelson prison rights coordinator for the law center. […]
Nelson said the prisoners are upset that they don’t have televisions, radios, cleaning supplies, legal-sized envelopes and razors. In addition, he said they also are being forced to share nail clippers even though some men have illnesses.
“They are requesting that the clippers be sterilized after every use,” Nelson said.
The group says just ten former Tamms inmates are on hunger strike, but the Department of Corrections says that 47 inmates at Pontiac have recently declared they’re on hunger strikes.
* Unlike House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton will send a delegate to the We Are One Ilinois’ pension “summit” this month. But Cullerton had some harsh words for those who believe that tax hikes are the answer to the pension problems…
“This notion of having to have no sacrifice from the pensioneers and have us just raise taxes and then spend it on them …,” Cullerton said. “What if we had $2 billion in new revenue? Why not do a capital bill? Why not spend more money on human services or pay old bills?”
[Cullerton] also singled out Henry Bayer, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, for blaming lawmakers for underfunding pensions.
“He forgets about the fact he was negotiating what some would say were generous contracts eating up the money instead of putting it in the pension fund,” Cullerton said.
The relationship between legislative leaders and public employee unions is strained, Cullerton said, “because the unions are opposed to any changes in the law that’s going to go anywhere toward solving the problem.”
State Rep. Joe Sosnowski (R-Belvidere) on Monday introduced a constitutional amendment, House Joint Constitutional Amendment 11, that would strike a 38-word paragraph of the Illinois Constitution that prohibits the reduction of public employee pension benefits.
A key stumbling block in the search for any viable legislative formula to restrain the costs of Illinois public pension costs is the language in the Illinois Constitution that states that public pension benefits “shall not be diminished or impaired.”
* I played football in high school and the coach forbade us from having long bangs that he said could interfere with our vision. Hey, it was the 70s and our coach wasn’t exactly a hippie. But I still wanted long hair, so I had to get what is now called a mullet. From 1977…
Man, I loved that shirt.
Best comment wins a $20 gift card at Grab-a-Java in Springfield.
* The Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability’s latest monthly report includes a history of Illinois’ bond ratings dating back to 1973…
So, the last time Illinois’ bond ratings were upgraded was in June of 2000 - but only one agency did so. You have to go back to the Thompson administration to see the last Illinois AAA rating.
* State Sen. Toi Hutchinson has refused to release her NRA questionnaires, undoubtedly because she used to be pretty solidly pro gun rights and is now running as a mostly gun control candidate who supports a ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines.
The questionnaire shows Hutchinson was asked if she would support “state legislation restricting the private possession, ownership, purchase, sale and/or transfer of any semi-automatic firearms.” She responded, “No, I would oppose such legislation.” The question also included the issue of large-capacity ammunition magazines.
Additionally, when asked by the NRA if Hutchinson would support “legislation making it a crime to fail to report the loss or theft of a firearm,” she replied: “No, I would oppose such legislation because it has no demonstrated affect on crime and creates an unwarranted legal presumption that gun owners should answer to the police for their own victimization or misfortune.”
But last week at a forum in Rich Central High School in Olympia Fields, Hutchinson announced she supports a state bill requiring the reporting of lost firearms. […]
Hutchinson maintained that [Robin Kelly] was running “a single-issue campaign” and trying to score “more political points” marketing the state senator’s gun-rights positions “as though they’re the positions that I have right now. And, I’m saying very clearly I’m moderating my positions.”
If that gun issue is resonating with special primary voters, Hutchinson could be in trouble. You gotta figure it’s polling well since the Kelly campaign has so completely latched onto the issue. We’ll see soon enough.
*** UPDATE *** Robin Kelly has issued a response…
“After refusing to release her NRA questionnaire for weeks, we know what Senator Hutchinson was hiding. She didn’t want voters in Chicago and the Southland to know that she promised the NRA that she would oppose an assault weapons ban. That she would oppose outlawing high capacity magazine clips.
“Toi Hutchinson says that Newtown, CT changed her perspective, but she agreed with the NRA’s extreme positions despite the killing happening on our own streets. The only thing that ‘changed’ for Toi Hutchinson is that she entered a race for Congress where her past support of the NRA’s agenda was no longer politically convenient.
“It’s clear now that we can’t trust Toi Hutchinson or Debbie Halvorson to protect our communities against gun violence because both were willing to stand with the NRA when we needed them most. I am the only candidate in the race ready to stand with President Obama to stop the NRA and their pro-gun agenda.”
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Meanwhile, in other CD2 news, complaints have surfaced that Anthony Beale may be requiring political help from those who want to be contractors on the new Walmart construction project…
[Contractor Reginald Rooks] said Beale’s congressional campaign has asked him to distribute flyers.
Rooks and leaders of the African-American Contractors Association suspect a connection between the hiring consultant and Beale’s political organization.
“I’m handing out your literature,” Rooks said. “Yes, I should get a job.”
Critics blame it on the culture of corruption that Chicago politics is infamous for.
“Its’ just a culture of corruption going on,” the Save Our Community Coalition’s Bob Israel said. “You know how long I’ve been fighting that. It’s just a culture of corruption.”
Beale denied any connection between his political organization and Maurice Williams.
“There’s no connection between my office and Mr. Williams other than he has a company and we direct people to his particular company,” Beale said.
* The conservative Jobs and Progress Fund Super PAC isn’t just running TV ads blasting Congressman Aaron Schock, it’s also sending out mailers whacking the potential gubernatorial candidate. Here’s one [Fixed link]…
* From a Daily Herald story about the legality of pension reform…
Just as Gov. Pat Quinn has used an orange cartoon snake named Squeezy to try to illustrate the harm the state’s pension debt does to the state budget, a 1960s report on the same topic included a tornado, sucking up cash.
And your little dog, too!
* I’ve never heard this General Assembly reform ever suggested before the Alton Telegraph did so…
What we find objectionable is that the “leaders” get an extra $20,000 just for serving in purely party posts. If these duties are so important to the goals of the individual parties, why shouldn’t the party organizations be responsible for the compensation, rather than taxpayers?
No extra leadership stipend? Well, that would sure make things different.
Set for trial in less than nine months, indicted state Rep. Derrick Smith dipped into his campaign fund to pay at least $37,500 to the criminal defense lawyers representing him in his federal bribery case, newly filed state campaign records show.
Smith made that expenditure to the Henderson Adam law firm on March 29, 2012, just days after being arrested for allegedly accepting a $7,000 cash bribe from an undercover FBI informant in exchange for offering to help a fictitious daycare center operator in his district obtain a $50,000 state grant.
He waits until now to reveal this payment to his lawyers? Over nine months after he was required to report it? What the heck?
* The media will probably have a field day with the proposed Sneaker Tax…
The cost of a new pair of basketball shoes could jump by 25 cents under a proposal floated this week by anIllinoislawmaker.
State Rep. Will Davis, D-Hazel Crest, wants to create a new tax that would generate an estimated $3 million annually for a youth job preparation program. He said the added cost would likely go unnoticed by most consumers, while helping finance a program for kids during tight budget times.
It’s not necessarily a horrible idea, if you don’t mind taxes, but I just don’t see it going anywhere. Why? This…
Rob Karr, senior vice president of Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said the organization will fight the proposal because it would create an unnecessary amount of additional paperwork for store owners.
“It imposes significant administrative burdens on the retailer,” Karr said.
Don’t mess with IRMA.
Also, it’s just a bill. Remember that. It ain’t a law. Bills get introduced all the time and never go anywhere. For example…
“I think we need drug testing for welfare recipients. I think the savings to the state can be tremendous, in the multimillions, for sure,” [State Rep. Adam Brown, R-Decatur] said.
Halvorson addressed the issue while speaking at a candidates forum organized by local clergy and church leaders and held Saturday at Lax Mortuary in Kankakee. Halvorson, along with state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, were the candidates scheduled to speak at the forum. Former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds made an unscheduled speech at the end of the event.
That’s two spit-takes in one graf. They debated at a mortuary? And Mel Reynolds unexpectedly showed up to give a speech?
Wish I’d seen that one.
* The Question: What would be the “best” place to hold a candidates’ debate?
The death of a friend he made on a quest to learn more about the needs of black communities has inspired a suburban state senator to look into authoring legislation regulating the use of Tasers.
“It rips my heart apart,” state Sen. Dan Duffy, of Lake Barrington, said of the death of Philip Coleman, a 38-year-old hospice executive and Rainbow/Push coalition member. Coleman died Dec. 13 after police, called by Coleman’s mother, used a Taser on him twice to restrain him.
Duffy, a Republican, hopes to build off previous stun-gun legislation that was introduced by Chicago Democratic Rep. Monique Davis but failed to move out of the Illinois House in the last General Assembly session.
“We need to look at stricter guidelines and training regarding the use and power of these weapons,” Duffy said, noting his research after Coleman’s death made him aware of higher stun-gun use against minorities. […]
But with questions surrounding Philip Coleman’s death, Duffy is calling for “better judgment and discretion before you’re out playing with a Taser.”
“Even though it’s not a gun, it’s just as powerful,” he said.
I happen to agree that stun guns are a lot more powerful than some law enforcement agencies will admit and that they appear to be used disproportionately against minorities.
Just call me stunned that a pro 2nd Amendment guy like Duffy would be willing to impose such restrictions on what the police deem to be a self-defense weapon.
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that a poll taken Jan. 30 of 1,255 likely Illinois Democratic primary voters shows Attorney General Lisa Madigan leading Gov. Pat Quinn by a very large margin.
Madigan also leads Quinn and former White House chief of staff Bill Daley in a three-way contest, according to the poll, but Quinn leads Daley in a one-on-one race.
And a large plurality of Democrats disapprove of the governor’s job performance. The We Ask America Poll has a margin of error of +/- 3 percent. About 18 percent of the results came from non-landline users.
In the poll, Madigan leads Quinn by 25 points, 51 percent to 26 percent. Among women, who almost always comprise a majority of Democratic primary election voters, Madigan’s lead is 53-22, while she leads among men 46-30.
Madigan’s lead over Quinn in Chicago is 46 percent to 30 percent and it’s 51-28 in suburban Cook County, while she leads Quinn 53-23 in the suburban collar counties and by a massive 53-21 downstate, according to the poll.
Madigan has not yet decided whether she’s going to run for governor. People close to her are divided over what they think she will do. She reportedly plans to take her time with her decision.
A Public Policy Polling survey taken in November had Madigan leading Quinn 64-20, but that poll was of just 319 “usual” Democratic primary voters with a margin of error of +/- 5.5 percent.
Still, PPP does excellent work, so if you average the two polls you get a 57 percent to 23 percent lead for Madigan over the governor. If Madigan’s decision is heavily weighted toward whether she can win the primary, she will give it a go.
Quinn has a better shot against Daley — a white, Irish Democrat from Chicago who may not bring much more to the table than Dan Hynes did in the 2010 primary.
According to the We Ask America poll, Quinn leads Daley by five points, 38 percent to 33 percent. November’s PPP survey had Daley leading Quinn 37-34, so average those two results and you get an essential tie at 36 for Quinn and 35 for Daley.
We Ask America found that Quinn leads Daley in the city 45-30, but Daley leads in suburban Cook 40-36. Quinn has a narrow half-point lead in the collar counties and leads by less than two percentage points downstate. The Daley name ain’t what it used to be.
Could Daley be a spoiler who helps Quinn in a three-way race? Not according to the We Ask America poll. It says Madigan leads a three-way contest with 37 percent to Quinn’s 20 percent and Daley’s 15. Public Policy Polling did not test a three-way race in November.
Madigan’s lead among women in a three-way contest is pretty big. She gets 38 percent to 17 for Quinn and 13 for Daley. Among men, her lead is a bit smaller at 34 percent to Quinn’s 24 and Daley’s 18.
Madigan leads Quinn and Daley in Chicago by 35 percent to 22 to 17. Her lead in suburban Cook is 35-18-18. She leads 36-17-16 in the collars and is ahead by a very big 40-19-11 downstate.
Public Policy Polling had Quinn’s job approval rating among Democrats at 40 percent, with a 43 percent disapproval. Last week’s We Ask America poll had Quinn’s approval among Dems at 37 percent, with a 42 percent disapproval.
Women give the governor a slightly lower disapproval rating than men — 41 percent of women disapprove, 46 percent of men. But just 36 percent of Democratic women and 37 percent of Democratic men approve of the way Quinn is handling his job.
Quinn won the 2010 primary and general elections despite low approval ratings. So, he’s been here before.
What he didn’t have to do back then, however, was take on one of the most popular politicians in Illinois. PPP’s November poll pegged Lisa Madigan’s favorable rating at 68 percent among Democrats, while just 16 percent had an unfavorable view of her.
If Madigan runs, she likely wins the primary election. Daley is another story. Like 2010, a Daley-Quinn race will be a hard-fought and bloody battle that could end up being pretty close.
If Quinn has to get a single primary opponent, Daley is the one he wants.
Subscribers have crosstabs.
* Related…
* Illinois attorney general collected $1.1B in 2012: Of that amount, more than half came from collections litigation, including funds from child support, damage to state property, unpaid educational loans, fines and penalties. The rest was split between tobacco litigation and estate tax revenues.
* AFSCME has declared today and tomorrow to be action days on its contract. From the union’s Facebook page…
Anything going on in your office or shop?
* Meanwhile, the Southern Illinoisan, which forcefully opposed the closure of the Tamms state prison, ran a recent editorial about a couple of assaults on prison guards, including this one…
Less than two weeks ago, on Jan. 19, Menard Correctional Center in Chester was placed on lockdown after an inmate assaulted a correctional officer. Fortunately, the staff member’s injuries were limited to bruises, but a spokeswoman for the department of corrections expressed concern about the attack. […]
You may also recall Tamms was defended by some as an appropriate home for the “worst of the worst” state inmates before falling victim to protestations of inhumane conditions and excessive costs. Opponents of Tamms’ closure also said the super-maximum prison helped control inmate violence throughout the correctional system because prisoners did not want to get sent to the facility as punishment.
Ty Peterson, of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the bargaining unit for prison staff, said the employee attacked at Menard recently was transferred to the correctional center from Tamms, which still housed some inmates until the end of the year.
Are you beginning to see a disturbing pattern? Is what we are seeing at Pontiac and Menard the “new normal” for correctional centers in Illinois?
Wait. The guard was transferred from Tamms to Menard, not the prisoner. I’m not sure I get it.
* I don’t know how you first reacted, but a wave of dread enveloped me when the announcers suddenly fell silent and the lights began extinguishing during last night’s Super Bowl blackout. It was kinda like the feeling I used to get during the Cold War at the start of those “We interrupt this program for a special news bulletin” announcements.
* I had to turn to Twitter after a couple minutes because CBS just wasn’t giving anybody any information about what was going on. Thankfully, ABC was on the case…
ABC News reporting Dept. of Homeland Security says “nothing nefarious” about Superbowl power outage #superbowl#abc7chicagonews
* After feeling a sense of relief that we weren’t under attack again, I noticed that lots of people I follow retweeted the Johnny-on-the-spot Oreos post…
The Oreo graphic was “designed, captioned and approved within minutes,” according to Sarah Hofstetter, president of the cookie brand’s digital agency of record, Dentsu-owned360i. All the decisions were made in real time quickly because marketers and agency members were sitting together at a “mission control” center, or a social-media war room of sorts, at the agency’s headquarters in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Manhattan. Among those who were there were two brand team members from Oreo, and nearly a dozen creatives, strategists, community managers and social-media listeners.
* I have to admit that I was confused at first about the #SB47 hashtag, thinking it must be a bill number. I even looked it up. Nope, that couldn’t be it.
Apparently, I spend way too much time thinking about Illinois politics.
Your own thoughts?
…Adding… My favorite Super Bowl ad also had a local angle. Ram Trucks used the late, great Illinoisan Paul Harvey in its moving spot…
Share the video and Ram will make a donation to “support FFA and assist in local hunger and educational programs.”
Hutchinson also has the endorsement from Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. On Wednesday state Sen. Napoleon Harris dropped out of the race and put his support behind Hutchinson.
Yes, Hutchinson was endorsed by Preckwinkle, but Sen. Harris endorsed Robin Kelly.
Everybody makes mistakes. Things happen and it’s usually no big deal. And I know there are a lot of candidates in the 2nd Congressional District race, but that story was really messed up.
* The AP wasn’t the only confused media outlet. The Hill…
While Hutchinson has high name recognition in the district following her 2010 primary challenge to Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), having no money is a bad spot to be in heading into the home stretch of the campaign.
No. Halvorson ran against Jackson.
Yes, the two names are similar, and Hutchinson once worked for Halvorson and got her Senate seat. And I’m always worried that I’m gonna screw up those names myself. But doesn’t the Hill have a ton of editors?
* Anyway, feel free to discuss the AFSCME endorsement, which I told you about over the weekend…
The progressive union AFSCME today announced their endorsement of Toi Hutchinson in the upcoming special election in Illinois’s Second Congressional District. AFSCME cited Hutchinson’s strong record of looking out for middle class interests in making its decision.
“AFSCME Council 31 is proud to endorse Toi Hutchinson for Congress,” the union’s executive director Henry Bayer said. “Toi has a strong record on retirement security, affordable health care, tax fairness and other issues vital to union members and all working people. AFSCME will educate our more than 7,000 members and retirees in the Second Congressional District about her leadership, and encourage them to get out and vote on February 26.”
AFSCME Council 31 is a leading voice for working families throughout Illinois, with 100,000 active and retired members who provide the essential public services that residents rely on. AFSCME is the nation’s largest and fastest growing public-service union with more than 1.6 million active and retired members, including nurses, corrections officers, caregivers, EMTs, sanitation workers and more. With members in hundreds of different occupations, AFSCME advocates for fairness in the workplace, excellence in public services and prosperity and opportunity for all working families.
“When I’m in Congress, I’ll keep working with AFSCME and stand with President Obama to protect the services and programs that people across the country need and depend on,” said Hutchinson. “For too long, Congress has focused on the budget deficit instead of the opportunity deficit. When I’m elected I’m going to work hard to invest in exactly the kinds of initiatives that empower people and communities.”
* Meanwhile, a Kelly partisan wonders about Sen. Hutchinson’s 2012 NRA questionnaire. Hutchinson received an “A-” from the group last year..
The National Rifle Association’s 2012 questionnaire for Illinois state legislature candidates directly addresses questions about assault weapons bans and bans on high capacity ammunition magazines:
• Question 10: Do you support state legislation banning the lawful manufacture, possession, ownership, purchase, sale and/or transfer of any firearms?
• Question 11: Would you support state legislation restricting the possession, ownership, purchase, sale and/or transfer of semi-automatic firearms used for hunting, competitive shooting, collecting and self-defense?
• Question 12: Would you support restricting or banning magazines that hold more than ten rounds?
How does Senator Toi Hutchinson answer those questions? Can we conclude those answers were to the liking of the NRA.
Unless proven otherwise by the Toi Hutchinson campaign, the answer is “yes.” The answers were to the liking of the NRA.
