Jeff Crank Show, Bernie Herpin, September 28, 2013
Station: KVOR, 710 AM
Show: Jeff Crank Show
Guests: Herpin
Link: http://grrc.podomatic.com/
Date: September 28, 2013
Topics: Gun Rights, Second Amendment, George Rivera, Recall Elections, Defense Contractor, Christians, Business Community, Gunowners, Volunteers, Pueblo, Plumbers, Victor Head, Ron Harris, Swearing In Ceremony, Navy, Air Force, Police Department, Colorado Springs City Council, County Commissioner, Cheryl Gillespie, Margaret Radford, Jill Gaebler, Larry Liston, Richard Skorman, Friends of NRA, Paul Peritus, Brady Bill, Assault Weapons Ban, United Nations Small Arms Treaty, Secretary of State John Kerry,
SUBSTITUTE HOST TOM ANTKOW: […] Tell us about yourself
STATE SENATOR-ELECT BERNIE HERPIN: Thanks, Tom. I came to Colorado Springs in 1962, In 1965, I married my wife – still married, 45 years. [I] joined the navy – went off to see the world. I served on submarines, first as an enlisted nuclear power plant operator, then the navy sent me to the University of Kansas – KU, not UK, what you have on your shirt today.
ANTKOW: I’m sorry.
HERPIN: [chuckles] I then – I went back to submarines as a strategic warfare guy and officer, and after I did my department head tour as a navigator and operations officer on the Robert E.Lee, I couldn’t have command of a sub, not being nuclear trained as an officer, and I wanted to get into the computer career field, so I did an interservice transfer to the Air Force while we were in Hawaii, and came back to Colorado Springs, spent 5 years here at headquarters for NORAD space command, and retired in ’85. And [I’ve] been working as a defense contractor, supporting our military ever since then. [I] currently work out at Shreever Air Force Base for Lockheed. And I got Interested in politics in 1995 when a friend of a friend, Cheryl Gillespie, was running for mayor. I worked on her campaign and worked on several other campaigns, became a precinct leader in the Republican party, and ran unsuccessfully a couple times: once for county commissioner; once for City council. In 2006, Richard Skorman, who was a city councilman, resigned to go to work for Senator Salazar, and I applied to—council was going to appoint his replacement, and I applied to be one of the people to be considered. There was like 34 of us, and miracle—talking about miracles, I got selected to finish out his one year. I sat out two years, and then when my councilwoman, Margaret Radford was term limited, I ran in 2009 for her seat, served 4 yrs. [I] ran for reelection this last April. This shows what happens when you have two conservatives in a race. There was two conservatives, and Jill Gaebler, who ended up winning– we conservatives kind of split the conservative vote. Jill got in. And so I figured I was done in politics. I donated the money that was left in my campaign fund to charity. Linda and I took the Amtrak to go out and visit our daughter and son-in-law,– my son-in-law is a Navy chief petty officer stationed out in California. In early June, […] I got a call from Larry Liston, who had been my state rep, saying, “It looks like the recall is going be successful. I think it’s going to go. They have enough signatures to get on the ballot. We would like you to be considered to run as the successor candidate.” And I said, “Okay. Well, I’ll think about it.” And I talked it over with the family, and came back and we met with Republican leaders, and they said, “You know, your service on council, you reached out to all kinds of groups, you were known as being responsive to your constituents, and you have good name recognition. We think that you would be the person that we would like to have on the ticket.” And I said, “Okay.” So that’s how I got into what I’m in now.
[…]
CALLER RON: [Background checks and magazine limits basically create a ban on gun sales, due to prohibitive and relative costs of the checks, and they are ineffective at reducing gun violence. The Business community didn’t help us on these recalls. neither did the Christians. It was all NRA and gun-owners. Everybody else didn’t fight. Don’t put yourself on the line for Christians or Business community. But they didn’t come to the aid – it was gun community.]
ANTKOW: [We have a problem with conservatives and moderates, — they are not stepping up as much as they need to to get things changed. Silent majority got a bad rep because they were evangelicals, — we have to get everyone coordinated to step up and start changing things back to the way we want them to be – American values that we need to have back in Colorado! Gun Control, Medical marijuana advocates – they need to be pushed back.]
HERPIN: And Ron, you’re absolutely– I’m only sitting here because of the hard work of hundreds of volunteers and the three guys who got this started, and Ron Harris who was the sparkplug for all this. And you and Jill coming down and making phone calls for me […] and folks like that that allow me to sit here. And of course, when I get up to Denver and get sworn in, I’m only going to be one of 18 senators. But my three goals are, certainly: one, to restore our rights; secondly, to promote jobs; and third, to protect our children. So, I am well aware of how I got here and very appreciative of the work you guys – people like you and Jill put into this effort.
CALLER RON: [Three guys: Rob Harris, Victor Head – they were grassroots and gun-owners. And the Christians never rose up. Business owners didn’t do anything. No money. NRA gave the money. The other people are lost in action, and that’s why we lost the state. Christians are too concerned with saving their souls and not enough with saving the nation and saving the world. They’re not active in fighting. Businesses don’t care as long as they are making a buck. Gunowners got mad.]
HERPIN: Well, Ron, I think that we’re on the right track now. And I think we will see a difference in November 2014. And we’ll talk more a little bit more about that later in the show. So —
CALLER RON: [Don’t jeopardize your situation by trying to help business and Christians too much.]
HERPIN: [chuckles]
CALLER RON: I mean, you know, help ‘em, but only do what — because we want you to get back in next year. We don’t want you to offend people, but we do want those gun laws overturned.
HERPIN: Right.
[…]
ANTKOW: […] I’m a little rankled because I’m a Christian gun owner.
HERPIN: Me, too.
ANTKOW: [And interesting – as member of business alliance – my hands were tied because I didn’t live in the district, so people couldn’t do much other than donate.]
HERPIN: And they volunteered a lot. We had volunteers coming down from Boulder and other parts of the county to walk precincts with us, to go door to door, to make phone calls, so we had a lot of help. Not just the voters, certainly made the ultimate difference, but to get the voters to the polls, we had a lot of help.
ANTKOW: And I think we have an opportunity if we start now, to you know, kind of rally the troops for 2014. [We have to focus on local issues and elections, and stop worrying about what the news media is telling us about the federal level politics, right now.]
HERPIN: And that’s true, Tom. And there’s already two Dems registered to run against me in November, if I’m the Republican candidate and I certainly hope to be. So, yes. We have to start looking down the road. We have to build on this momentum – and that’s what I’ve kind of stressed in my talks to Republican groups since the election happened, that we cannot squander the momentum that has been built up. We’ve got to build on it
ANTKOW: I agree, and you know, I’m your first in-studio volunteer for your campaign you can call on me at anytime.
HERPIN: [chuckles] Thank you.
ANTKOW: All right. We are going to take a call from Don. Don, you want to talk about guns also. So gosh, guns are always popular.
CALLER DON: Yeah, yeah, I do want to kind of supplement on what Ron was saying, and I mean, you know, why Morse and Giron did what they did. I’m going to say, this is not just a local or a national agenda, it’s really actually an international agenda. Because I don’t know what Bernie Herpin can do about it, but I’m going to make him aware that John Kerry signed the UN treaty –
HERPIN: [interrupting, and sounding somewhat frustrated by the caller’s comments] Yes, I know that. [chuckling is heard in background, possibly from host Tom]
CALLER DON: And I think, that’s kind of, you know, under the radar. And basically I think that’s part of the ultimate goal to use that to disarm American citizens across the board. And I think that’s why Obama is supporting the Morse / Giron gun control the way he did.
ANTKOW: All right. Briefly, Bernie, tell people about the United Nations resolution, I think—or bill that Kerry got involved in. Thanks for the call.
HERPIN: Thanks. Yeah, that’s – the United Nations wants to restrict or control the sale of small arms throughout the world, and including the United States. Hopefully, our Senate will not ratify –our US Senate will not ratify that treaty.
ANTKOW: It’s that New World Order, you know.
HERPIN: [chuckles]
ANTKOW: And they want to control the United States through the United Nations—
HERPIN: Yep
ANTKOW: — and I think Obama is a big proponent of that. He wants to get the United Nations –
HERPIN: Right.
ANTKOW: — to kind of control everything, so.
[…]
HERPIN: I, as an elected official, I answer to the people who put me in office. And if they don’t like what I’m doing, and if enough of them get upset, a recall is legitimate means to remove a person.
[…]
ANTKOW: […] What was your impetus? What was the final straw that put you into politics, in the first place? Do you remember?
HERPIN: I do. In 1992, when the Brady Bill was passed, after President, uh, Reagan – uh, President, uh, —
ANTKOW: –was shot.
HERPIN: When, excuse me, when the assault weapons ban was put into place in 1992. That’s when I got involved in defending our Second Amendment rights. You know, I served twenty years in the United States military, took an oath to defend our Constitution, but I was kind of one of those guys who would go out and shoot once in a while at the range, and really never was concerned about our gun rights. And I went to my first Friends of NRA dinner in 1992, and that’s where I met Paul Peritus, who owns a gun store here and was very big into those kinds of thing. And that’s kind of what got me involved. And once you get involved in an issue like that, and you meet with local officials, when the city was talking about gun laws, and the state, you get a reputation of being concerned but being reasonable. And I think that’s how I got noticed by elected officials and people in our city and state. And then working on campaigns, volunteering, and becoming a precinct leader, like you did, becoming a delegate to the different conventions and different assemblies, that –you know, then candidates call you up and they want to know what you think, and so that –. My life has been spent, even before I got into politics, both in the military and as a volunteer of over 25 years with our police department, serving on different boards and commissions at the city, state, and county level. I have a, you know, a service – I believe I am called to serve my constituents, and that’s why I’m in this. I’m not in it because of the title. Certainly, [I’m] not in it for the money. I’m taking a huge pay cut because I have to leave my job at Lockheed to do this when the session starts. So, I truly think that the word “public servant” means something and that’s what I hope to be.
[…]
ANTKOW: All right, so, Bernie, doggone it! We wrapped up a show. You didn’t want to take some calls, but you did and you found out that you have a lot of fans out there.
HERPIN: I thoroughly enjoy talking to folks, and hope that –. If you’re having town hall meeting, or if you’re going to – your homeowners association is having a meeting, and you would like me to come, if my schedule permits, please, go to bernieherpin.com and you can send me an email and I will be there. And we intend to do some town halls and things. We have a lot of challenges facing Colorado, with the fires and the floods, and taking back our state, and restoring our rights. And I’m just so thrilled and so honored to be in this position. I never dreamed that I’d be one day standing in the state Senate in Denver.
