As the Ginny Burdick intimidation story goes national, she's not backing down

Kari Chisholm

The stalker-ish videotaping of Senator Ginny Burdick at her home by pro-gun absolutists is now beginning to get national attention.

Earlier today, Senator Burdick appeared on MSNBC's PoliticsNation show.

Burdick felt intimidated by the video posting, which disclosed her home address. ”It creeped me out,” she said, but insists that those fighting her gun reforms with such tactics are the exception, even among gun owners. “This is the fringe. This is not your regular gun owner.”

“Unfortunately they are dominating the discussion right now,” she also conceded. “What’s really frightening is that it seems to work,” Burdick said. “Politicians back down just because they don’t want to take the harassment, and that’s what results in no change.”

Burdick, however, won’t acquiesce to the pressure. “I refuse to be intimidated, because I just can’t in good confidence back down after Newtown. I can’t do it.”

Here's the clip:

New York Times columnist Joe Nocera also took note - and the refusal of Multnomah County Republican Party chair Jeff Reynolds to acknowledge the disturbing nature of the incident:

When I spoke to Reynolds, he conceded that the videographer was a friend but refused to divulge his name. He said the video had nothing to do with the gun issue. “She lied,” he told me. “She is accountable to we the people.”

He added, “This was no different than what Mike Wallace used to do at ‘60 Minutes.’ There was no intimidation.” Sure. ...

The extremist tactics of people like Jeff Reynolds and his videographer friend are clearly part of the reason why [Republicans don't have a credible candidate for Governor] — they’ve helped delegitimize the Oregon Republican Party.

It's clear this story isn't going away.

By Kari Chisholm March 12, 2013