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VOTE ON CONSCIENCE
him. His East Texas district
housed more gun dealers than the
entire state of New York.
As the legislation progressed
through Congress, Brooks tried to
strip out the ban and other controversial provisions. He brought
them up for a vote in conference
committee, expecting them to be
voted down. It blew up in his face.
His Republican counterpart on
the committee, Rep. Henry Hyde
(R-Ill.), ended up supporting the
provisions Brooks wanted removed, an aide recalled.
The National Rifle Association,
aware of Brooks’ efforts, initially
urged its members to reelect
the congressman. But other gun
rights groups were apoplectic.
Gun Owners of America, then
(and now) led by Larry Pratt, attacked Brooks for not stopping
the bill in its entirety. The NRA
eventually joined the chorus.
“Once we got back into the
campaign, the bill passed and
Jack had nothing to argue about,”
said Dan McClung, a longtime
Houston-based consultant who
worked on Brooks’ 1994 campaign. “The sweep got him. That
day in Texas, God, we lost everything. We lost [former Gov.] Ann
Richards ... it was kind of the
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start of the beginning of the end
of the Democratic Party in Texas.”
Brooks, who died this past December, still holds the distinction
of being the longest-serving incumbent ever to be voted out of office.
He served for 42 years and, according to McClung, had been an NRA
member for much of that time.
Others suffered similar fates.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic Sen.
Harris Wofford found himself,
literally, in the crosshairs. Supporters of a young congressman
named Rick Santorum sold target
practice sheets with Wofford’s
House
Judiciary
Committee
Chairman
Jack Brooks
during a
hearing in
Washington,
D.C., in 1982.