NRA straw poll Alert! Take Acton Now!

M. Raborn I contacted the NRA today and received the same response as RP08IS Hope.
Thank you for contacting the NRA-ILA. Regarding your comments, Congressman Ron Paul was invited to the National Rifle Association's Celebration of American Values. The NRA did not receive a response from him. As a result, there is no mention of your candidate in the article. If Congressman Paul had accepted the invitation, or contacted the NRA prior to the event, every effort would have been made to accommodate his appearance. In fact, NRA did work with a number of candidates who did not RSVP and we facilitated their appearance in person or via videotaped message. The same courtesy would have been given to the Ron Paul campaign had they contacted us. If and when the NRA has another candidate forum, we would hope that Congressman Paul would participate - either in person, or via videotaped message.
Best Regards,

Ryan Irsik
NRA-ILA

If this is true, this is a MAJOR ERROR on the campaigns part. The NRA is politically very influential. Many of their readers, follow their recommendations closely. This is a large voting block. Personally we have canceled our membership, because we were unhappy with some of the candidates they have supported in the past. However, this time it appears that indeed, it was Congressman Paul's own campaign that is at fault. I do not care to hear any more excuses about, being short staffed or being overwhelmed. It is the volunteers that are getting his message out and raising money. Can't the campaign simply respond to invitations. I guess not, because there have been repeated stories of the campaign staff ignoring inviations and not respondiing to calls. When Congressman Paul learns of such poor performance, I hope he will reorganize his campign staff and bring the campaign home to Texas where we understand effeciency and courtesy. Such reorganization is not unusual. Several presidential candidates have already gone through major reorganization in their campaign staffs. I just fear that Congressman Paul is not being informed as to how poorly his staff is performing. Because he is now getting all the attention and raising loads of money, he believes his campaign is doing a good job, however it is the volunteers that are having to overcome the short comings of his staff. (Now I do not need Jean Akin to tell me how professional the staff is. Check their resumes and tell me what qualifies any of them to oversee a national presidential campaign. Then check the FEC reports and I think you will find they are being paid above their qualifications, while they tell us we need to make more and more monetary sacrifices.) I will apologize if the NRA falsely accused the campaign staff, however, since this is such a common complaint, I think the saying "where there is smoke, there must be fire" is probably true in this case.

EVERYONE -- PLEASE ACT ON THIS NOW! All it takes is an email to:

ILA-Contact@nrahq.org

I am re-posting from earlier in hopes more will see see this! The polls HAVE gone out to all NRA members; Ron Paul IS included; NO voting records or 2nd Amendment statements are included for ANYONE.

We need to bombard the NRA with requests that they email their entire mailing list that got the Poll sent to them and ask that they provide this information so that their members can make a truly informed decision when they fill out the poll.

Please, DO IT NOW! LAST CHANCE TO AFFECT THIS OUTCOME AT ALL!

This is what I posted earlier today:

NRA STRAW POLL
On November 28th, 2007 Rubiebaby says:
Just got off the phone with Angus (nice guy!) -- Ron Paul IS included on the poll, but the ballots have already been sent out and they do NOT have anything on them about candidates stance on 2nd Amendment nor their voting record.

I asked if it could be possible to do some entry on their web page, and maybe send a special email to all members that will be receiving the poll so that they WOULD give that information. He said he would forward that suggestion.

Do you think it would have more impact if a LOT of us also asked to have updated info provided to their members via email? Seems like it might!

I am a fairly new gun owner and I am currently waiting to see if I wish to join a gun organization. But I will only join one that endorses Ron Paul.

Here is what I sent:

Hello,
I recently became a gun owner and am a big proponent of the 2nd amendment. I also wish to join a gun owners organization, such as, the NRA. However, I must wait to see which politician each organization endorses before I make my decision. I am well informed and know the difference between a true constitutional conservative and a liberal trying to pretend to be a conservative(Guiliani). I will not tell you who I support, but the choice you have to make is plainly obvious. Take great care in choosing your endorsement, because there is really only two viable choices for the IRA to choose between; of which one of them has a poor public policy record and will only score brownie points with religious southerners. The other will irritate the liberal wannabe Republicans (Bush/Guiliani/McCain/Romney/Thompson), but will score major points with religious westerners like myself or any other American-loving Patriot who wants to restore the Constitution to its former glory.
Thank you for your time,
T** L****
Northern California
~~~~~~~~

I figured they had heard enough of Ron Paul supporters, so I left his name completely out of it. I just wanted to be honest with them and let them know that the decision they have to make is a very important one. Perhaps they can do what Hillary would do...support Ron Paul in CA, Huckster in Alabama, Rudy in (well I am not sure where his support comes from, certainly not NYC), but I think you get the point. But they cant do that and I will be watching the NRA now. :)

I thanked her in advance. I also told her that I don't own a gun but our second amendment rights are important and should be upheld.

I just got off the phone with Alicia (9:45 am Pacific Time) She said the poll has not yet gone out and that it does not have the voting records on the poll.
Keep calling!

Just emailed Alicia!

Good Morning Alicia,

I am emailing to enquire about your straw poll that will be going out to members. I would very much be interested to know how the candidates stand on this issue (their voting records)

Will you be providing any information like that? I have researched several candidates, and I think this would be a great way to give your members the information that they need in order to make an informed decision.

Warm Regards,

Chris Wiebe

Just wrote Alicia a very nice letter of support, both patting the NRA on the back as well as of course "encouraging" their support of Ron...at least with a proper presentation of voting records on their straw poll.

Mike
Ron Paul is my HERO!!!
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