Margaret Good says hey, hey, don’t vote for NRA-owned Ray Pilon

Ray Pilon-Margaret Good

Democratic state Rep. Margaret Good plans to stand her ground on gun safety, and said her Republican challenger Ray Pilon, a lifetime National Rifle Association member, shouldn’t attack her on her Parkland vote.

Pilon, who previously held Good’s Florida House District 72 seat, released a new attack ad featuring Andrew Pollock calling into question Good’s vote against the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act.

“Even though parents like me asked for her vote, Margaret Good said no,” Pollack said.

Good stands by her vote. She voiced from the start the bill did not go far enough to implement background checks and contained a poison pill provision allowing more school personnel to carry guns on campus.

“We deserve so much better,” Good recently told the Herald-Tribune. “Florida deserves so much better than the Marjory Stoneman Douglas bill. After a tragedy like that to provide this bill — how could anybody vote for it?”

A new press release says she did the right thing in pushing for more restrictions on gun purchases.

“Rep. Good stood up to special interests and the NRA by voting against arming educators and janitors,” reads a news release from her campaign. “She fought for a bill that would have provided funding for trained law enforcement officers to protect our children, required universal background checks for anyone trying to purchase a gun, and banned AR-15 style assault rifles like the kind used in the Parkland massacre.”

Further, she attacks Pilon for his lifetime NRA membership and for cozying up in the past to leaders of the pro-gun group.

She noted Pilon in 2015 voted in subcommittee to allow concealed weapons on college campuses, in 2014 voted to allows more guns on school grounds and in 2011 supported legislation prohibiting doctors from asking patients if they own guns. That last law later was ruled unconstitutuional.

She also linked to a notorious New Yorker profile on NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer. The piece quotes Pilon saying he called Hammer begging her to let him keep an A-rating even after he missed a vote on Stand Your Ground legislation.

Incidentally, Pilon doesn’t flatter Hammer in the piece, who told the magazine “Marion crucified me” over missing the vote.

And in response to Pollock weighing in, Good touted the endorsement of another vocal Parkland father, Fred Guttenberg. Yesterday, Guttenberg tweeted: “The NRA is viciously attacking her. They know she will fight for stronger legislation than previously passed in Florida as she has consistently expressed how limited that bill was.”

Pilon for his part suggests the defensive on the part of Democrats shows the ad hits a soft spot of Good’s record.

“You might of noticed the Dems don’t like our ad. Guess they either don’t like the truth or don’t understand he vote if prevailed would have meant 0 dollars for school safety,” Pilon wrote yesterday on Facebook. “There is more to be done. However doing nothing would have put our students at risk. I will stick by the ad because it is the truth. I will never compromise my beliefs.”