Colorado Candidates Give Away Guns To Make A Point, Get Attention

DENVER (AP) - It's campaign season. So it must be time for the candidate gun raffles.

Colorado state senator and U.S. Senate candidate Tim Neville has already given away a semi-automatic rifle in what his campaign manager Joe Neville called a bid to get voters' attention and underline his father's support for gun rights. Now, Neville, a businessman with a background in the food service industry, is offering a handgun.

"Senator Neville's a huge supporter of the Second Amendment," Joe Neville said in an interview Wednesday. "He's been a champion of it in the (state) Senate."

Colorado House of Representatives hopeful Tom Lucero said he got the idea for his drawing for a pistol from his fellow Republican Neville and similar efforts in previous years across the country.

"Republicans want to know whether you strongly support the Second Amendment," Lucero said.

He added that while he would have backed Republican-led attempts to expand gun rights that failed during the current state legislative session, the issue was not among his top campaign priorities. He said he has focused instead on reining in state Medicaid spending, improving transportation in his part of the state and supporting small business.

Lucero, a northern Colorado businessman and former member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents, is gathering petition signatures in a bid to get on the June 28 state primary ballot. He said the gun is not being offered in exchange for support for his petition.

Colorado's Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert told AP it would be illegal to offer anyone anything to sign a petition. She said Lucero's giveaway would only be looked into if someone complained to the local district attorney.