First-time Republican congressional candidate Valerie Ramirez Mukherjee, seeing to replace Democrat Rep. Brad Schneider in the 10th Congressional District in Illinois said something during an online interview with the Daily Herald newspaper that could raise eyebrows well beyond the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.
Indeed, for someone running for Congress in northern Illinois, her comments might be considered remarkable.
A 2017 transplant from Washington State, Ramirez Mukherjee told the newspaper she opposes gun bans “for law-abiding citizens” if criminals still would have access to such firearms. While she expressed support for so-called “universal background checks,” the newspaper reported her concerns that criminals could hack into any gun-related database to find where gun owners life, and she also contended criminals don’t go through background checks, anyway, to obtain firearms.
She further revealed she feels safer “knowing probably that a lot of my neighbors have guns.”
Incumbent Democrat Schneider reportedly told the Daily Herald, “I’ve been at the forefront of this issue, and I will continue to be at the forefront of this issue and work to try to make sure we reduce gun violence in our cities and in our country.”
Schneider is a gun control proponent who said on his website, “During my time in Washington I fought for sensible legislation that would expand background checks to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and close the gun show loophole. I also believe in restricting large capacity ammunition and reinstating the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.”
He recalls how his “very first speech from the floor” of Congress “was about standing up to the NRA and calling for sensible gun safety legislation.”
“That speech and my votes in Congress led to the NRA giving me an ‘F’ grade,” the website statement says.
The newspaper noted Schneider’s claim that he is “leading the charge” against the NRA in the wake of published reports about alleged spending practices of association leaders, and the possible abuse of NRA’s tax-exempt status.
Ramirez Mukherjee is admittedly a long shot for election, having pulled in less than 15,000 primary votes this past March while Schneider received more than 79,000 votes. But that was before the COVID-19 pandemic panic put millions of Americans out of work, and months before civil unrest erupted in Chicago and other American cities with Democrats now seen by many citizens as supportive of the Antifa anarchists who allegedly hijacked Black Lives Matter protests to vandalize, burn and loot private businesses.
Underscoring that Democrat dilemma was the Fox News report Wednesday about Sheriff Dave Wedding in Vanderburgh County, Indiana. He is so stunned with Democratic leadership allegedly condoning urban demonstrations and rioting that he’s left the Democrat party.
“As a law enforcement leader,” the sheriff said during an interview with Fox, “I can’t imagine 101 days of rioting, and it is condoned by the Democratic leadership. It’s unbelievable that they can do that to a law enforcement professional. As a sheriff, I could not imagine putting my deputies on the front lines of these riots night after night with no relief in sight.”
“What I’ve witnessed across the United States is shocking,” Wedding said.
