Let’s say you’re suffering under withering criticism from all sides because you chose to raffle off a Glock handgun as a political fundraiser in Pima County, AZ less than a year after the same make of gun was used to shoot local Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) and murder six people. After days of bad press, what would your next move be?
If you said “raffle off another firearm as quickly as possible to bank on the press attention,” you must be Mike Shaw, chair of the Pima County GOP.
The Arizona Daily Star reports the Pima County GOP saw such a bump in interest after all the national attention for the Glock raffle that Shaw decided to throw another weapon on the auction block. The paper reports the GOP “subsequently raffled a deer rifle” after the Glock fundraiser went so well.
It’s worth noting that Shaw’s critics on both sides of the aisle told TPM last week that a rifle auction would probably never have drawn the criticism the Glock auction did in gun-friendly Arizona. With a local election a day away in Pima County’s biggest city, Tucson — which residents refer to as “the Berkeley of Arizona” — the Star reports city Republcians are sprinting away from the county GOP’s fundraising decisions.
“When you have a slate of candidates who are already trying to generate some name recognition, in a city where they are out-registered by 2-to-1, and you tie a Glock to their tail, you’ve pretty much shown that you don’t understand the dynamics of the area,” Tucson councilperson Steve Kozachik (R) told the paper. He “characterized [the Glock auction] as ‘incredibly stupid,'” the paper reports.
Just a few days ago, Shaw was sounding a bit more conciliatory toward his critics than his doubling down on the whole gun raffle thing might suggest.
“Had I known the reaction was going to be this strong, I would have taken that into consideration,” Shaw told the New York Times. “But we’ve done handgun raffles in the past and we’ll do them in the future. We’re not trying to offend anyone.”
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