“Kamala Harris doesn’t scare Republicans, but Mark Kelly absolutely should,” opinion columnist Phil Boas declared Tuesday in The Arizona Republic. “Mark Kelly is on the short list of names for the No. 2 spot, and he’s rapidly rising as the popular choice.”

It’s basically a PR piece from an expected source, a paper that’s part of the Gannet Publication chain. Without really setting out to do so, I’ve been randomly documenting the media giant’s Democrat/anti-gun biases for years, ever since calling attention to how its papers violated corporate ethics policies after one, The Journal News, published gun permit holders’ names and addresses, and another, The Des Moines Register, called on gun owners to be killed.

So, it’s hardly a surprise that Gannett’s Phoenix holding would be stumping for a candidate with whom it has a longstanding supportive relationship and access. The reasons the advocacy piece lists, including his careers as a fighter pilot and astronaut and a reputation for not being soft on crime, will appeal to independents who don’t understand that the citizen disarmament wagon Kelly has hitched himself to in recent years makes violent criminals’ jobs easier.

But yes, Republicans, and particularly gun owners, should be concerned. The Giffords prohibitionist group Kelly’s wife Gabby is the figurehead for has emerged as a multimillion-dollar powerhouse, which, while not as well financed as billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown, has eclipsed the older Brady group according to tax reporting forms posted on the Candid/Guidestar nonprofit reporting website.

The head of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee isn’t playing games when it comes to the White House avoiding answers to questions about potential collusion with antigun groups to target GLOCK, Inc., with a frivolous lawsuit,” Shooting News Weekly reports. Who doesn’t believe Kelly in the White House would be collusion on steroids?

Kelly is definitely a threat, but not one that should intimidate Republicans from playing hardball. For starters, why not begin by questioning how a guy who’s had a career in the military and at NASA has managed to accrue a fortune of up to $27M as of five years ago. Government work sure pays well, and “speaking fees” suggest nothing so much as special access and consideration, with no small amount of “rope-selling capitalism” thrown in.

Perhaps those cozy relationships can be exploited to trigger the young communists who wouldn’t mind burning Chicago to the ground during the upcoming Democrat National Convention unless the Party offers a Bolshevik platform, and while you can’t expect Republicans to comment on Gabby being Jewish, the pro-Hamas “river to the sea” faction of Democrat fanatics should have no such compunctions.

Then again, there are useful idiot American street commies, and there’s the real thing, the ones in power, and this is where Republicans could make a lot of noise. Don’t just follow the money, follow the Yuan/RMB.

“Mark Kelly Owes Complete Disclosure on Chicom Money Influence,” this column reported in 2020, quoting a Washington Free Beacon story:

“The Chinese government invited then-astronaut Mark Kelly, now an Arizona Democratic Senate candidate, to an all-expenses-paid retreat at a countryside resort in 2003. He left China five days later not only with a future spouse, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D., Ariz.), but also with lucrative regime business contacts.”

Gannett wasn’t the only one with ethics policies. NASA had them too, particularly on personal enrichment resulting from agency duties.

If Kelly is the pick, here’s hoping Republican opposition researchers investigate all his business dealings and loudly. While it’s true he would be a formidable candidate, the GOP should be realistically wary, but not, as Boas asserts, “absolutely scared.”

The person who should be is Kamala Harris. If she picks him, how long will it take the string-pullers to realize that the false front she presents can’t handle the Oval Office and their global interests, and career-trained Kelly would be a much more effective executive?

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” regularly contributes to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter @dcodrea and Facebook.