Open in TheBrain

Richardson, HL Bill

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/923143195">
</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/923143195">https://www.npr.org/transcripts/923143195</a>
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">npr pod<b> origin of no compro</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="font-size: small;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>RONALD REAGAN: But I would think that some of the bills that have been suggested, such as not carrying a loaded weapon on a city street or in town, this might certainly be a good one. There is absolutely no reason why out on the street today civilians should be carrying a loaded weapon.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAGEN:<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;That bill, the Mulford Act, it passed. Reagan signed it. This was four years after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Gun control was on the march. Even the National Rifle Association of the time ultimately supported the federal Gun Control Act that would pass in 1968. This was just after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAXEL: Among other things, the new gun law restricted mail orders of rifles and shotguns and barred sales to felons, mentally ill people and anyone who is, quote, "an unlawful user of or addicted to marijuana."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LYNDON B JOHNSON: But this bill, as big as this bill is, still falls short.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAXEL: President Lyndon Johnson signed it and hoped more would come.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">JOHNSON: I ask for the national registration of all guns and the licenses of those who carry those guns, for the fact of life is that there are over 160 million guns in this country - more firearms than families.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAXEL: At the time, some in NRA leadership were considering pulling the group out of politics altogether. But that was about to change.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAGEN<b>: A major shift was brewing inside the NRA and across the gun rights world.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAXEL: We said earlier in the podcast that the Dorrs are just one faction in a whole movement. And just as the NRA was having its inner turmoil - the Cincinnati revolt - a new competitor popped up.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAGEN:&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Gun Owners of America, the original no-compromise gun group.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">HAXEL:</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;Remember R.J. Rushdoony, father of Reconstructionism, the slavery wasn't so bad guy? Well, he had this friend.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">RUSHDOONY: Friend of mine who is a state senator in California, a very fine Christian, thoroughly reformed. He's running for U.S. Senate.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">HAXEL: Rushdoony calls him Bill. He also went by<b>&nbsp;Sen. H.L. Richardson</b>. They talked a lot more.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RUSHDOONY: I was chatting with Bill Richardson, our state senator.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bill Richardson was in Sacramento. He called me up one day. He'd had a long session with feminists who were there in his office.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAGEN:<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>&nbsp;Rushdoony's pal H.L. Richardson </b>was not happy with the gun control sweeping through California and the rest of the country. In 1975 when his fellow state lawmakers tried to ban handguns, Richardson decided to start some gun groups of his own.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">RUSHDOONY:&nbsp;</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners of California, Law and Order Committee - all run by</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Bill Richardson.</span></b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAGEN<b>: Gun Owners of America - today, it's the second largest pro-gun group in the country, says it has 2 million members compared to the NRA's 5 million.&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Just like R.J. Rushdoony was the father of Christian Reconstructionism, Gun Owners of America - or GOA - is like the Johnny Appleseed of the whole no-compromise movement. Some 40 years after its founding, the seeds it planted are bearing fruit.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAXEL: That talking point the Dorrs use about how the Second Amendment isn't about hunting...</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A DORR:<b>&nbsp;Gun rights is not about hunting. It's not about sports, you know? It's about a response to tyrannical government.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAXEL: Here's the longtime head of Gun Owners of America. You're going to want to remember this name, Larry Pratt.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LARRY PRATT: Yes, our guns are in our hands for people like those in our government right now that think they want to go tyrannical on us. We got something for them. That's what it's all about. The Second Amendment is not about hunting. It's not about target shooting. It's about Democrats who want to take our rights.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAXEL: Pratt's been saying that for decades. In the gun world, GOA is known as the more militant cousin of the National Rifle Association, which has a lot of appeal for anyone who's fed up with NRA Wayne LaPierre and his suits.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HAGEN: As we know by now...</font></p></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font><div><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/173146897/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/173146897/&ved=0ahUKEwiBqN6C2tDZAhWK8oMKHX8XCi8QFggwMAI" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California on April 28, 1985 ...</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="f kv
SWb" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><cite class="Rm" style="font-style: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/173146897/</font></cite></div><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f" style="">Apr 28, 1985 -&nbsp;</span>Also involved in the election was the Sacramento-based&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Free Market Political Action Committee</span>, a group that channels thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to conservative candidates. It put out a mailer for the conservative slate. The chairman of the committee is freshman Assemblyman Gil&nbsp;...</font></span></div></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><div id="mod-a-body-after-first-para" class="mod-latarticlesarticletextwithadcpc mod-latarticlesarticletext mod-articletext" style="padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">Yet, despite all its surface tranquility, the city, about 90 miles north of Sacramento in rural Butte County, becomes a battleground of far left and far right politics at election time.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Four years ago, a group of liberal candidates, with support from the left-of-center Santa Monica-based Campaign for Economic Democracy, defeated four conservatives and took control of the seven-member City Council.</span></p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Then, in municipal elections several weeks ago, a conservative faction backed by ultra-right Sacramento legislators swept four incumbents, including the mayor and three council members, out of office.</span></p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Local residents say the last campaign divided the city into two bitterly warring camps.</span></p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"There was absolutely no middle ground,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">" said Republican activist Karen Vercruse, a city planning commissioner and campaign manager for one of the conservative candidates. "It was like the community grabbed their dogs and children, ran indoors and left the two gunfighters out on the street to battle it out. I've never seen such an intense campaign. We beat their socks off."</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">While the city elections are still mostly local affairs, outside political forces have figured prominently in local voting, a development with statewide implications.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On one side is the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED), a group founded in 1977 by then political activist and now Democratic Assemblyman Tom Hayden of Santa Monica with the help of his actress-wife, Jane Fonda, to promote tenants' rights, rent control, energy conservation and other issues.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">Bid for Respectability</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;"><b>Hayden, who helped organize the militant Students for a Democratic Society into a political force in the 1960s, hoped to establish CED's respectability by winning elections in college towns like Chico.</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">On the other side are conservatives, who say the fight here is one that will be repeated in other parts of the state.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">"Chico represents the middle ground in California. That's what we are fighting for, the left and the right. If we can beat them in Chico, then we can probably beat them in every other part of the state," said John Feliz, a Sacramento-based legislative aide to conservative Sen. John Doolittle (R-Citrus Heights) and one-time director of the Law and Order Campaign Committee.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">Feliz, who owns a political consulting firm called Communications Consulting Group, coordinated activities of the conservative slate.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">Also involved in the election was the Sacramento-based Free Market Political Action Committee, a group that channels thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to conservative candidates. It put out a mailer for the conservative slate.</p></div><div class="float" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" clear="clear" both="both" height="height"><img src="http://articles.latimes.com/images/pixel.gif" height="1" width="1" alt="" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; display: inherit !important;" /></div><div id="mod-a-body-after-second-para" class="mod-latarticlesarticletextwithadcpc mod-latarticlesarticletext mod-articletext" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;"><b>The chairman of the committee is freshman Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach), a retired Marine Corps officer and head of the Free Market Political Action Committee, </b>who said: "Until now, there has been nobody effectively countering CED. Everyone has been assuming it will fall of its own dead weight. Not only don't I think it will fall of its own dead weight, I think there should be opposing forces in our society. We'll be challenging them elsewhere."</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">Conservatives say the election results point to a decline in the effectiveness of CED, locally as well as statewide.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">But Hayden downplays the importance of Chico politically, although in days gone by victories here, as well as in Santa Monica, Santa Cruz, Arcata and Berkeley, led to rejoicing by CED.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">Hayden said the price CED paid for winning local elections and then holding onto the offices was too high, so they have been backing away.</p></div></span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">town hall books</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">https://www.amazon.com/PARTY-TALK-Senator-H-L-Richardson/dp/1622302818</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ver found yourself with your back against a wall, trying to disengage yourself from a one-sided debate with one of your liberal acquaintances? • How many times have you been irrefutably right on a matter and yet unable to convince the other person? • Tired of being "shot down" in arguments by your "slightly to the left" friends? If so, this book will teach, empower and equip you to win these discussions and, at the same time, not lose your friends. In fact, you could even convert some of them. Sound impossible? Not at all if you are willing to practice what you learn and improve your ability to communicate. You can be a more effective spokesman for our Nation if you really wish to be. Bill has a unique ability to deconstruct the ploys that leftists use to change the discussion and distort facts to put conservatives on the defensive.</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;I know that what you learn in this book will be helpful as you seek to convince your neighbors to support constitutional, fiscally responsible government in the upcoming presidential election. Foreword by Pat Nolan, California State Assembly Republican Leader [1984 - 1988]&nbsp;</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Not one to sit idly by and watch his country slip away on a path towards socialism, H.L. "Bill" Richardson became a man of action.</b> He won election to the California State Senate where he served for 22 years. He fought efforts to weaken California's criminal laws and successfully fought to reinstate the death penalty, to crack down on child molesters and drug dealers. He defeated a sitting Supreme Court Chief Justice and two Associate Justices who were soft on crime. o spread the word, Richardson wrote thousands of articles and recorded as many radio spots. He founded four very successful political action committees including Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners of California, Law and Order Campaign Committee, and Free Market Political Action Committee. But, that wasn't enough! Bill wrote Slightly to the Right, Confrontational Politics, and What Makes You Think We Read The Bills, books dedicated to give today's conservatives the tools to take action themselves.</span>
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">bs</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">enator H. L. Richardson is a nationally recognized, twenty-two-year veteran of the California State Senate who has focused his extensive political career on the preservation and protection of our Second Amendment rights. An active hunter and outdoorsman, Senator Richardson has been vigorously involved on the state and national scene, racking up political victories that span more than four decades.</font></p><p style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>In 1966, H. L. “Bill” Richardson, a successful advertising executive, was elected to the State Senate the same year Ronald Reagan was elected California’s Governor. </b>Because of his vast hunting and outdoor experience, he was tapped to Chair the Senate Fish and Game Committee, and was elected by his Republican colleagues to a leadership position as Caucus Chairman, a post he held for many years.</font></p><p style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In the early 1970’s, the Senator became very aware of the worldwide inroads the radical left were making in politics, most specifically their consistent attempts to disarm Americans. He became a life member of the NRA and, with their encouragement, authored the state preemption of firearms law which in 2009 resulted in overturning the recently enacted San Francisco handgun ban. He was subsequently elected to the NRA Board of Directors, where he served for over a decade.</font></p><p style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 1975, the radical left introduced legislation to ban all handguns in California. The bill generated strong support from elected officials and the main-stream media, which triggered Richardson to mobilize enraged citizens from throughout the state. It was at this point that Gun Owners of California was born, a direct mail attack was unleashed and the bill was defeated. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);">Gun Owners of America soon followed and Richardson’s keen skill for mobilizing single individuals toward a common goal launched a very effective political movement that continues to focus on the preservation of the Second Amendment.</span></font></p><p style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">During his 22 years in the California Senate, Richardson showed that a determined application of confrontational politics could produce big victories. While in office, in addition to GOC and GOA, Richardson organized multiple Political Action Committees [PACs] that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight the political left. One such committee was “Law and Order Campaign Committee” which led the charge to defeat<b> Chief Justice Rose Bird</b> and two other liberal members of the state Supreme Court. The three anti-victim justices were defeated by over a million votes. LOCC then pushed for the return of capital punishment, a move strongly opposed by the liberal leadership of both houses and Governor Jerry Brown (during his first term in office). Using massive direct mail pressure, the bill passed both houses but in spite of heavy support from the public, the bill was vetoed. LOCC refused to give up, and using targeted direct mail and the mobilization of concerned citizens, Governor Jerry Brown’s veto was overridden.</font></p><p style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Richardson took this sharp political insight and wrote a virtual “game plan” for political wins with his controversial book, Confrontational Politics.</b> He clearly explains his core belief that politics should be a struggle of competing ideologies, not a game of compromise and accommodation. A published author, other works include “Slightly to the Right,” an entertaining yet informative book written in the 60’s that taught conservatives how to debate their liberal friends. It became an immediate conservative classic which sold over 250,000 copies nationally.</font></p><p style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“What Makes You Think We Read the Bills?” was written while Richardson was in the Senate and provides rare, yet funny insight into the real-life workings of the Legislature. It has been used as a textbook in political science classes throughout California.</font></p><p style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Richardson also combined his love of writing and extensive knowledge of the American West to write a series of Western mysteries, beginning with “The Devil's Eye,” and followed by the sequel “The Shadows of Crazy Mountain.” For a change of pace, he authored “Split Ticket,” a political comedy based in Sacramento, California.</font></p><p style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">His unique perspectives and use of humor have kept him in demand as a speaker and writer, and he continues to provide colorful media commentary on a host of issues. He is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades from fellow Second Amendment organizations, and has received such notable recognition as Outstanding Statesman Award from the Conservative Caucus, Law and Order Award from<b> American Educational League, the Guardian of Freedom Award from (YAF) Young Americans for Freedom</b> and the Ronald Reagan Freedom Fighter Award. He has also been recognized for his exceptional work in law enforcement, having earned commendations from California homicide investigators, swat teams, police, parole and correctional organizations.</font></p><p style="line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Senator Richardson has three children, seven grandchildren and an ever-growing team of great-grandkids. He was married to his beloved wife Barbara for 57 years. He currently resides in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, east of Sacramento</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Gun Owners of America was established. H.L. Richardson, former John Birch Society staff member and a California state senator, organized Gun Owners of California. (1975)</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Santa Cruz Sentinel - Sunday, Feb. 22, 1981</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>Sen. Bill Richardson Becomes Kingmaker</div><div>
</div><div>By STEVE LAWRENCE SACRAMENTO (AP) -&nbsp;</div><div>
</div><div>H.L "Bill" Richardson looks more like a small town merchant than a kingmaker. The Republican state senator from Arcadia with the short gray hair, boyish grin and ample girth favors loose-fitting sweaters, suspenders and baggy pants over three-piece suits. But there is nothing small town about Richardson's campaign fundraising operations. <b>An avowed conservative "ideologue," Richardson has become one of the most powerful men in California as the head of committees that gave about $1 million to federal, state and local campaigns in 1980. aides estimate.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Gun Owners of California, one of four Richardson fundraising organizations, was the third biggest donor to legislative candidates in last year's primary campaign with $213,896 in contributions. That money has helped elect 29 new legislators in the last three years, in a few cases in upset victories that shocked the political establishment</span>. <b>Richardson's success has helped pushed the Legislature to the right and worried Democrats and some Republicans.</b>&nbsp;</div><div>
</div><div>One senator says it could have "at least a subconscious effect" on how some lawmakers vote, particularly on crime legislation. It is also cited as one of the reasons Senate Democrats overthrew their long-time leader, Sen. James Mills, D-San Diego, after the Nov. 4 election. And it has prompted the Senate's new Democratic leaders to plan a more aggressive fundraising operation. "The time that we think we can respond to cannons by pelting marshmallows is over," says Sen. David Roberti, the Los Angeles Democrat who succeeded Mills as Senate president pro tempore.&nbsp;</div><div>
</div><div>At 54, Hubert Leon Richardson Jr. (he uses his father's nickname, Bill) is one of the Legislature's most conservative members. A recent press release described him as "California's leading conservative spokesman." '7 am not the most easy guy to get along with. If I don't like what a guy's done, I'll tell them. Unfortunately, my</div><div>
</div><div>colleagues don't like that. <b>...I'm a very direct guy in a very indirect world." He is an ardent opponent of gun control, a critic of many social programs and an outspoken supporter of long prison terms and the death penalty.</b></div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>&nbsp;Recently he called for the use of hanging for some crimes.</b> The former John Birch Society member opposes the minimum wage, says the progressive income tax is based on greed and contends American workers don't need the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to have safe workplaces.&nbsp;</span></div><div>
</div><div>Richardson is an affable but blunt man known for his sharp tongue and, in one instance, his fists.<b> He punched Sen. Milton Marks, R-San Francisco, several years ago during an argument</b>. It is his tongue many of his colleagues, Richardson says, "don't have the executive ability to work their way out of a bag" and his impatience wth more flexible lawmakers that accounts for his inability to hold posts in the Senate Republican leadership, he says. "I am not the most easy guy to get along with. If I don't like what a guy's done, I'll tell them. Unfortunately, my colleagues don't like that. ...I'm a very direct guy in a very indirect world."</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A Republican senator who asked not to be identified said Richardson has a "power motivation." "He enjoys the vestiges of power that he receives from handing out campaign contributions," the senator said. "The problem is he expects to buy people, expects them to be with him 100 percent of the time. It doesn't work that way. "I don't think there is any doubt that Bill would like to be president pro tern of the Senate."</span></div><div>
</div><div>Doolittle. who worked for Richardson before running</div><div>
</div><div>against Hodda. rejects words like powerbroker and</div><div>
</div><div>kingmaker in describing Richardson.</div><div>
</div><div>"Bill Richardson truly believes in the conservative</div><div>
</div><div>philosophy," Doolittle says. "Another thing that people</div><div>
</div><div>don't understand is that he s very much a team player.</div><div>
</div><div>Sen. John Schmitz, 'who is probably closer philosophically to Richardson than any other senator, also</div><div>
</div><div>spps idooloev as Richardson s motivation, the bottom</div><div>
</div><div>line is that tie is a super patriot," Schmitz says.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Some Democrats accuse Richardson and some of the candidates he's supported of distorting the legislative records of incumbents they have challenged,</b> an allegation</div><div>
</div><div>Richardson heatedly denies.</div><div>
</div><div>"There is a strong impression the messages he sends to voters are far from accurate representations," says</div><div>
</div><div>Sen. Barry Keene, D-Elk.</div><div>
</div><div>Democrats are particularly upset about the defeat of</div><div>
</div><div>Rodda, the Senate s dean and one of its most respected</div><div>
</div><div>members.</div><div>
</div><div>Doolittle's campaign accused Rodda of doing nothing</div><div>
</div><div>to stem a 3HU percent increase in crime m m uisuhl Rodda says his record was misrepresented. For example. Rodda said, Doolittle said he abstained</div><div>
</div><div>from voting on a bill to raise rape penalties. Actually, t</div><div>
</div><div>Rodda said, he was chairing a committee nearing when</div><div>
</div><div>the bill was voted on. He later voted for a similar</div><div>
</div><div>measure, he said. Richardson, who contributed nearly $40,000 to Doolittle, says he was not involved in the "nuts and bolts" of Doolittle's campaign, but he defends the attacks on Rodda. "He's got a lousy record on law enforcement," he said. The Law and Order Campaign Committee, a Richardson group, was also accused of using questionable tactics when it sent Superior Court judges facing reelection in 1980 a questionaire disguised as a student)</div><div>
</div><div>survey.&nbsp;</div><div>
</div><div>The Rodda defeat is cited by some Democrats as the development that gave Richardson his kingmaker reputation, but another senator who defeated a Richardson backed candidate last year puts most of the blame for Rodda's defeat on Democrats. "Had the Democratic caucus and Rodda felt they were in a serious challenge and met that, I'm sure Rodda would have won," said Sen. Henry Mello, D-Watsonville.</div><div>
</div><div>&nbsp;Richardson has had his share of losses, including an unsuccessful bid in 1978 to unseat state Chief Justice Rose Bird. A check of campaign reports from Gun Owners of California and the Law and Order Campaign Committee revealed that only 20 percent of the legislative candidates they supported since 1978 were elected. Richardson says the figure is significantly higher when only candidates with major support from his committees are counted. His contribution lists, he says,</div><div>
</div><div>include challengers who got limited, indirect aid from contributor mailings discussing incumbents' voting records.</div><div>
</div><div>Richardson's political career coaster ride.&nbsp; resembles a roller</div><div>
</div><div>Senate Republican leader William Campbell, Richardson's rival, puts it another way. "Bill would run the ball through the center of the line. I would much rather pass and run around the end now and then. He's more involved in confrontation politics." Despite his unsuccessful attempt to unseat Campbell in December he said the Hacienda Heights Republican was doing little to elect Republicans Richardson denies he is using his fundraising operations to boost his political career. His goal, he says, is to elect conservative majorities to the Senate and Assembly and then retire to paint and write.&nbsp;</div><div>
</div><div>He was a commercial artist before he jumped into politics and is the author of "Slightly To The Right" and "What Makes You Think We Read The Bills?" a barbed look at the Legislature. "If I had enough guys in the Assembly and the Senate that had the same philosophical approach (as I do) toward diminishing government." Richardson says, "I would get out (of the Legislature) so fast your head would spin." But some people are skeptical of Richardson's motives. "He's a very affable gentleman but he's ambitious. He's determined to have political power," said former Sen. Albert Rodda, a Sacramento Democrat who lost in an upset last November to a Richardson protege, John Doolittle.</div><div>
</div><div>He lost a congressional campaign in 1962 but won his Senate seat in 1966. Then in 1974 he lost to U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif., nearly 2-1. He has also held and lost or given up the GOP leadership posts of whip and caucus chairman. He was removed as caucus chairman in 1979 in a showdown with Campbell. With the backing of a few supporters, Richardson</div><div>
</div><div>formed Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners of</div><div>
</div><div>California in 1975 and <b>contracted with Richard Viguerie, an eastern direct-mail exert, to raise money. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Law and Order Campaign Committee followed in 1976. The Free Market Political Action Committee, a prosmall business group, is Richardson's most recent undertaking.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The four committees ran up more than $340,000 in debts last year. Bill Saracino, who runs the gun committees tor Richardson, says about half of the two committees' $300,000 deficit has been paid.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A fifth committee, the California Republican Study Group, was formed recently by Richardson and five other</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">conservative Senate Republicans.</span> It is widely viewed as a vehicle for a continuing campaign against Campbell. Richardson also heads <b>Computer Caging,</b> a firm</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>ill</div><div>
</div><div>which handles fund tabulation and other chores for his committees and conservative clients. When Richardson's accountant claimed four years ago Richardson was inflating charges to his committees to make a profit for Computer Caging, Richardson called the accusation "bull puckey" and fired the accountant. Richardson say he takes only expense money out of his operations, although he acknowledges he would benefit if he ever sold Computer Caging. A check of contribution statements indicates almost all of Richardson's money comes io small donations of $100, $200 or less. Many contributors are retired. Richardson letters to gun owners warn of efforts by "anti-gunners" to push "gun-confiscation" legislation, although there have been few gun control bills recently, largely, he says, because of his efforts. Richardson contends his letters are "fairly dispassionate. I think you get somebody mad again," he says. "If the concern isn't there in the first place, you get nothing."</div><div>
</div><div>" had enough guys in the Assembly and the Senate that had the same philosophical approach (a I do) toward diminishing government," Richardson says, " would get out (ofihe Legislature) so fast your head would spin."</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>rough March 19, 1981</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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