Tim Pawlenty’s stepping up his appeal to gun owners in Iowa.
On Saturday, the former Minnesota governor will bring his RV tour to Searsboro to the Iowa Firearms Coalition Second Amendment Rally, making him the only 2012 contender to accept an invitation to an event that’s expected to draw about 1,300 people.
Gun issues aren’t major motivators for Iowa voters, but they’re certainly on the minds of the people who’ll attend next month’s Ames straw poll and the Iowa caucuses. And with Pawlenty staging a last-ditch effort to revive his campaign’s prospects, he’s looking to appeal to every potentially overlooked constituency he can.
Jeff Burkett, president of the Iowa Firearms Coalition, said his group doesn’t intend on endorsing a presidential candidate. But he also hasn’t ruled it out.
“Second Amendment rights should be in the top five issues of any presidential campaign,” said Burkett, who represents a couple thousand gun owners in the state. “It’s an extremely important part of history.”
Already on Wednesday, Pawlenty stopped at a shooting range on Wednesday, telling reporters that he frequently hunts deer and pheasant with his brother, who accompanied him on the trip. Then he trained a Glock 9mm pistol at three moving cardboard targets and emptied out about a half-dozen rounds.
“He handled the handgun fairly well,” said James Egeland, who owns the private range behind his home in Madrid, Iowa. “I don’t think he’s done it a lot, but I thought he did pretty well.”
The gun rights discussion is yet another way for Pawlenty to play up his executive experience out on the stump.
“Not only is he a strong proponent of the Second Amendment, he actually has a record delivering for gun owners,” said Pawlenty spokesman Alex Conant. “He’s the only governor who can say he signed a conceal-and-carry bill — twice.”
The governor earned an “A” rating from the NRA in his 2006 re-election run on the strength of a gun record that included that law requiring county sheriffs to issue handgun permits to almost any law abiding Minnesotans over the age of 21. (Then, after that law was struck down in the courts, Pawlenty signed another restoring the measure.)
Meanwhile, it’s been a while since Pawlenty’s competitors have tackled gun issues. Before launching their official 2012 bids, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, John Bolton and Herman Cain spoke at the National Rifle Association’s convention in Pittsburgh. On his first to New Hampshire, Jon Huntsman visited a gun shop.
The NRA, which is co-sponsoring the Saturday event, is mobilizing to push Second Amendments rights forward in a 2012 campaign conversation that’s so far been more focused on the economy, jobs and social conservative issues.
“If there’s one lesson that politicians have learned, it’s that it is good politics to be on the right side of the gun issue,” said Andrew Arulanandam, director of public affairs for the NRA. “Certainly gun owners and hunters are savvy, but more importantly, they’re a loyal voting bloc. Election year after election year they turn out in droves, and they vote for the pro-gun candidate.”
But, at this point, Iowa gun activists at least don’t see much difference between the GOP contenders’ positions on their issue.
“To me, they’re all about the same,” said Sean McClanahan, a Des Moines resident who’s the outgoing president of the Iowa Firearms Coalition.
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