Midterm 2018: Mikie Sherrill, Gabrielle Giffords event highlights gun rights in campaigns

Two days after welcoming Joe Biden for a campaign rally in Montclair, Democratic candidate Mikie Sherrill on Friday received the full-throated support of prominent gun-control activists in her bid to represent New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District.

Gun control has become a key issue in the 2018 midterm elections following a recent string of mass shootings, including the February attack at a Florida high school that left 17 students and staff members dead. 

Voters’ judgments of how the Republican-controlled Congress has responded to the shootings — by declining to take up legislation that would meaningfully tighten federal gun laws — is one factor that could tip competitive races like that in the 11th District, which includes parts of Essex, Morris, Passaic and Sussex counties.

Democrats need to pick up 23 Republican-held seats this November to regain control of the House, and four of the most vulnerable seats for Republicans are in New Jersey. That includes the one in the 11th District, which has not sent a Democrat to Congress in more than 30 years.

Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman severely injured in a 2011 shooting, and her husband Mark Kelly, a Navy veteran and retired astronaut, held a forum with Sherrill at the Woodland Park American Legion on Friday to tout the candidate's support for tougher gun laws.

“For a long period of time, we’ve allowed a powerful corporate interest to control this issue in Washington, D.C., and in state capitols to the detriment of all of us,” Kelly said, adding of Sherrill: “We need — Gabby and I and our organization, and the moms and all these other groups fighting for this issue — we really need her in Congress.”

The event is part of a seven-stop national tour organized by Giffords’ eponymous group and VoteVets, a liberal political action committee that supports veterans running for office. Other speakers Friday included a Woodland Park police officer and two doctors who have treated gunshot victims, both of whom stressed the need for federal funding for gun-violence research.

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Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, is facing off in the 11th District against Republican Jay Webber, a Harvard-educated lawyer and state assemblyman who has championed conservative issues in Trenton.

Sherrill says on her campaign website that she supports renewing a federal ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, which expired in 2004, as well as universal background checks, a ban on bump stocks and other “common-sense” measures.

On Friday, she added that she remains “incredibly opposed” to so-called concealed carry reciprocity, a federal proposal to require all states to recognize concealed carry permits granted by other states, and said she wants to move the nation closer to New Jersey’s strict approach to gun regulation.

“Our laws here in New Jersey are constantly undermined by surrounding states that don’t have good gun safety legislation,” Sherrill told the audience. “It’s very easy to get guns from other states and bring them across state lines, and that’s why I think it’s so critical that we have good federal gun safety legislation.”

Webber, for his part, has opposed many — but not all — new gun restrictions in New Jersey, which has some of the most stringent gun laws in the country. Under Gov. Christie, he opposed legislation to ban the possession of .50-caliber rifles. More recently, he voted against legislation Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law earlier this year that imposed a 10-round limit on the capacity of gun magazines and set a stricter standard of what applicants for a concealed carry permit must show to prove they need it.

But he supported other Democratic-sponsored legislation signed by Murphy, including a “red flag” law that authorized police or family members to petition a court for the removal of a gun from a person who may pose a threat. He also voted this year for a measure mandating background checks for private gun sales and, in 2016, for a Giffords-backed bill banning people convicted of domestic violence or subject to a restraining order from possessing a firearm.

“Jay has taken a common-sense, balanced approach to strengthening gun laws in New Jersey, while allowing law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and protecting their constitutional rights,” his spokeswoman, Ronica Cleary, said in a statement Friday. 

“He is a father of seven children, ages 4 to 16, and the safety of our communities and our schools is critically important to him,” Cleary added. “That is why in addition to authoring the landmark law protecting schools from hiring child predators, he has voted in support of background checks for private gun sales, keeping guns out of the hands of those who are a danger to themselves or others and banning armor-piercing ammunition and bump stocks.”

Webber’s campaign did not respond to questions about whether the assemblyman backs concealed carry reciprocity or the other proposals Sherrill says she supports.

Sherrill and Webber are vying to replace 12-term Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-Harding, who surprised party leaders when he decided in January to retire. That decision may have been influenced by blowback he received after voting in favor of a concealed carry reciprocity bill a month earlier.

Longtime Frelinghuysen donor Finn Wentworth, a real investor, cited that vote in publicly withdrawing his support for Frelinghuysen and instead backing Sherrill.

Giffords, the organization, made headlines in New Jersey earlier this year when it opted to endorse Rep. Leonard Lance, a Hunterdon County Republican battling to defend his 7th District seat from Democrat Tom Malinowski.

The group has so far endorsed more than 100 candidates running for the House, the Senate and governors' offices across the country. Of that number, only three are Republicans, including Lance. The other GOP House candidates are Chris Smith of New Jersey's 4th District and Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania.

Lance as recently as six years ago was boasting about his “100-percent voting record” from the National Rifle Association, but he has since co-sponsored legislation to allow funding federal research into gun violence and to ban bump stocks. He also backed a measure opposing concealed carry reciprocity.

That's the type of change in thinking Giffords has said it wants to encourage.

“For long-term change … we need to get both Democrats and Republicans to not be in the pocket of the gun lobby and to do what’s best for their communities,” Kelly said after Friday’s event.

The group has also endorsed Andy Kim, the Democrat challenging incumbent Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-Toms River, in the 3rd District, and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-Wyckoff, who is facing Republican John McCann in the 5th District. 

Email: pugliese@northjersey.com

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