Democratic pollsters: Don’t blame gun control for Virginia loss

[SecularMotion]

Gun control advocacy did not sink Democrats’ chances of taking the Virginia state Senate this week, pollsters for both the state party and a gun control advocacy group argue.

Everytown for Gun Safety, a group founded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, put more than $2 million into two races Democrats needed to win to take control of the upper chamber of the state legislature. They won one but lost the other, a seeming rebuke of a campaign focused on tighter restrictions on gun purchases.

“This election is a clear repudiation of Governor [Terry] McAuliffe and his out-of-state supporters like Michael Bloomberg,” Virginia GOP Chairman John Whitbeck said in a statement.

Pete Brodnitz, who did polling for Everytown and has worked on several Virginia elections, disputed the idea that gun control is “political poison” in the state.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/democratic-pollsters-dont-blame-gun-control-for-virginia-loss/2015/11/06/7d94f65a-84ae-11e5-9afb-0c971f713d0c_story.html