Facing a Recall After Supporting Stronger Gun Laws in Colorado
By JACK HEALY
Published: July 28, 2013 368 Comments
DENVER — As he prepared to vote for some of the strictest gun control
measures in the country earlier this year, John Morse, a former police
chief and president of the State Senate, knew he would infuriate some
constituents.
Matthew Staver for The New York Times
State Senator Angela Giron says she is frequently drawn into discussion about the recall election.
Matthew Staver for The New York Times
Amanda Ortega canvassed in Pueblo for Ms. Giron, who
hired a staff member from President Obama’s re-election campaign.
“There may be a cost for me to pay, but I am more than happy to pay it,” he said in a recent interview.
Now, after months of gathering signatures and skirmishing in court, gun
activists in Colorado, with the support of the National Rifle
Association, have forced Mr. Morse and a fellow Democrat, Senator Angela
Giron, into recall elections. The recall effort is seen nationally as a
test of whether politicians, largely Democrats, outside big cities and
deep-blue coastal states can survive the political fallout of supporting
stricter gun laws.
“Legislators should be scared,” said Becky Mizel, chairwoman of the
Republican Party in the old steel and railroad town of Pueblo, Ms.
Giron’s home district. “We have a battle here.”
Around his Colorado Springs-area district, Mr. Morse has spent the
summer in campaign overdrive. He walks door to door, explaining his
votes to people in his narrowly divided district.
At first, the recall drive was against four Democrats. But the
organizers failed to collect the required signatures against two of
them, leaving only Mr. Morse and Ms. Giron to face a recall vote on
Sept. 10, a first for the state. Voters must decide whether either of
the Democrats should be recalled and, if so, who should replace them. So
far, only two Republicans — one a former police officer, the other a
former city councilman — are expected to be on the ballot to replace the
incumbents.
“They’re going to turn out to ride me out of town on a rail,” Mr. Morse
said. “Symbolically, if you could take me out, that would be a benefit
to the special gun interests.”
For Colorado gun-rights supporters — and their allies like the N.R.A.
and the Republicans who opposed the gun bills — the recall elections are
a chance to send a message to any politician who would support similar
legislation. If Mr. Morse and Ms. Giron survive the recall vote, it
might bolster lawmakers in other gun-friendly states to consider more
controls on firearms.
The recall campaign began just weeks after the state’s
Democratic-controlled Legislature passed Colorado’s first new gun limits
in more than a decade — measures that required background checks for
private transactions and limited the rounds in ammunition clips.
To supporters, the limits were an overdue response to mass shootings
that have haunted Colorado since the Columbine High School attack in
1999. But in a state where avid support for hunting and sport shooting
crosses generations and partisan lines, the measures drew an angry
response from many quarters.
Supporters of the new gun laws — including Gov. John W. Hickenlooper, a
Democrat — said they were tailored for Colorado. Lawmakers increased the
proposed limits on clip size to 15 rounds from 10, and added provisions
to allow parents to pass down guns to their children without a
background check. Supporters released opinion polls showing they had the
support of solid majorities of Colorado residents.
But to Victor Head, a plumber in Pueblo, the new measures were a
travesty. One day, Mr. Head said, he was chatting with friends on a Web
site for enthusiasts of the AR-15 assault rifle when the discussion
shifted to how they could strike back at their legislators.
“You can only write so many e-mails and go to so many meetings and
protests,” Mr. Head said. “They have to listen to a recall.”
Democrats criticized the recall effort as a waste of time that would
cost taxpayers $200,000. They pointed out that Mr. Morse had to step
down next year because of term limits, and that Ms. Giron, a first-term
senator, would be up for re-election.
But gun-rights activists said they needed to act.
“We’re sick of saying, ‘Let’s just wait until next year,’ ” Mr. Head said. “We’ve got to send a message.”
In Colorado Springs, supporters of the recall set up a political action
committee, the Basic Freedom Defense Fund, and started printing bumper
stickers, hiring paid signature-gatherers and taking donations. They
have collected $19,750 to date, including $250 in ammunition that was
donated as door prizes for volunteers. The vast majority of
contributions have come from donors around Colorado Springs, though
campaign-finance reports say that the N.R.A. provided help with mailers
and phone banks.
In Pueblo, Mr. Head took a hiatus from his job fixing water heaters,
borrowed $4,000 from his grandmother and set to gathering the 11,000
signatures needed for a referendum on Ms. Giron.
Gun advocates set up tables on street corners and in the parking lots of
a Walmart and a Safeway grocery store, waving signs that said “Save Our
Guns” and “Recall Giron.” They went door to door handing out leaflets.
They crowded town-hall meetings to condemn the new gun laws and promise
political retribution.
“I am tired of seeing our Second Amendment rights trampled on,” said Joe
Santoro, a retired military explosives expert who joined the recall
effort. “We can beat them.”
Mr. Morse was a leading voice in the fight to pass the gun limits, which
came in response to the mass shootings at a movie theater in Aurora,
Colo., last July, and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn.,
in December.
Though other legislators were more closely involved in the drafting of
the background-check bills and the ammunition bills, it was Mr. Morse
who lobbied fellow Democrats and rounded up votes. And he was the prime
sponsor of a proposal, which he later dropped, that would have made
dealers and manufacturers of assault rifles liable for deaths or
injuries caused by those guns.
Mr. Morse was first elected to the Senate in 2006 and won re-election in
2010 by just 340 votes in a district in the Colorado Springs area that
is split roughly in thirds among Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated
voters. He is barred by term limits from seeking re-election next year.
But as the Senate president, he became a high-profile target for gun
advocates in the recall vote.
“I just go back to Dec. 14 and July 20, and think about the families
that had to bury their children,” Mr. Morse said, referring to the Sandy
Hook and Aurora shootings.
Ms. Giron was elected to the Senate with 55 percent of the vote in a
Pueblo district that leans heavily Democratic. Only 23 percent of voters
are Republicans.
She said she could not go anywhere in public without being drawn into a
discussion about the recall election. “I’m watering plants in my front
yard, and people stop,” she said. “I’m in the grocery store or getting
gas, and people are coming up to me.”
Ms. Giron has support from powerful Democrats — including Lt. Gov. Joe
Garcia, who has campaigned for her — and there is a political action
committee supporting her. The PAC has hired a staff member from
President Obama’s re-election campaign, Chris Shallow, who handled field
operations in North Carolina for the Obama campaign.
Ms. Giron and Mr. Morse are raising and spending far more than their
opponents. Ms. Giron’s supporters have raised more than $87,000 and Mr.
Morse’s more than $153,000, according to campaign disclosures. Each
campaign has received thousands from progressive groups in Colorado and
$35,000 apiece from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington group that
supports liberal and environmental causes, and $3,500 each from the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
As they make their case, Ms. Giron and Mr. Morse are trying to expand
beyond the gun debate. He emphasizes his years of public service as a
police officer and paramedic. She talks about the $40 million in
community college funding she helped to secure.
Even if he loses, Mr. Morse said, he has no regrets, not after Aurora and Sandy Hook.
“How does that happen and you don’t stand up and say, ‘We have to fix this’?” he said.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: July 29, 2013
An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified one of the Republican challengers expected to face John Morse, the State Senate president, on the ballot. He is a former city councilman, not an author of erotic novels. (That candidate has since left the race.)
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