NRA effectiveness questioned on Huffington Post.

[real_name]

As more figures come in, the extent of the NRA's campaign losses becomes even clearer. They spent over 2.1 million dollars in independent expenditures in 51 federal campaigns during the 2006 election cycle according to data reported so far to the Federal Election Commission. These expenditures made the NRA seventh on the FEC's list of non-party related Political Action Committees.

If you add the money they spent in the races for Governor in Colorado and Wisconsin, their total independent expenditures came to nearly 2.6 million dollars.

So what kind of "bang" did the NRA get for these bucks?:

* 83 percent of the money went to losing campaigns.
* 88 percent of the money spent on U.S. Senate campaigns went to losers
* In the Colorado (an open seat in, yes, a western Rocky Mountain state) and Wisconsin (site of the NRA National convention this year) races for Governor, the NRA spent 442,000 dollars and lost both races soundly.
* Over 2.1 million dollars was spent on 14 statewide races (for Senator or Governor) and the NRA still lost nearly 80 percent of those races.
* In the 11 races where the NRA advertised heavily on TV, radio and in newspapers, they helped only two candidates win.
* In most of these races where the NRA lost, there was a clear public difference between the competing candidates on the issue of common sense gun violence prevention measures, a difference that hurt the NRA-backed candidates at the polls.

The challenge now is for our elected officials to realize that
supporting things like Brady background checks to keep criminals and
terrorists from buying guns from legitimate sources, and enforcing the
laws applicable to gun dealers to make sure they don't contribute to
the market in illegal guns by allowing straw purchases, makes good
sense from a political as well a policy perspective.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-helmke/no-bang-from-nra-bucks_b_34704.html

 

[FTF]

The challenge now is for our elected officials to realize that
supporting things like Brady background checks to keep criminals and
terrorists from buying guns from legitimate sources, and enforcing the
laws applicable to gun dealers to make sure they don't contribute to
the market in illegal guns by allowing straw purchases, makes good
sense from a political as well a policy perspective.

That sure helped preventing 9/11.

Biased newspaper/blog. Means nothing to me. Probably means something to the drones that listen.

 

[real_name]

Huff Po is left wing, they exist to counter the Fox brainwashing.
Two sides of the same coin really.
But if these statistics are facts then they are worthy of discussion regardless, which is why I posted them, for discussion of the subject not the medium.

 

[FTF]

Oh my God, I want to kill myself.

From the 'comments'.

I have a little trick I like to play on 2nd Amendment nuts. I ask them to recite the Second Amendment!

Only very rarely can they recite the whole thing, so I not-so-gently remind them that they should be able to tell you what the amendment says before they can tell you what the Amendment means.

This turd thinks he is so smart. I bet he can't recite the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th amendments verbatim. I guess that means all of those rights are null and void according to that logic. Welcome to socialism you idiot.

The constitition protects even the idiots. Sorry. As a liberal he should expect fair treatment across the board.

 

[-terry]

Well, I think that the NRA assumed that all republicans were pro gun and all Democrats, anti gun and spent their money accordingly. They clearly didn't realize that the Democrat victory had nothing to do with gun control.
-terry

 

[RangerHAAF]

That post is directly from the Brady Center's website, it's not an original from Huffington.

 

[RealGun]

The facts in regard to Congress are that the House has a net gain of 4 pro-gun seats, and the Senate has not changed, trading three pro-gun Republicans for three of the first pro-gun Democrats (Tester, Webb, Casey). Previously there were none.

I have read via GOA that Governor's races included significant loses to anti-gun candidates. It is just a case in point where beating up on Bush and the Republicans should include being careful what you wish for. It is a bit like shooting yourself if you can't get your way.

 

[Brett Bellmore]

I'm somewhat heartened by the news that the NRA spent that much money on losing candidates; One of my continual complaints about them has been their tendency to only back candidates they're sure will win, sounds like they're willing now to take a chance on a pro-gun long shot.

 

[geronimotwo]

i think that, after the patriot act, more and more Democrats are realizing why the second amendment exists.

 

[LAK]

* In most of these races where the NRA lost, there was a clear public difference between the competing candidates on the issue of common sense gun violence prevention measures, a difference that hurt the NRA-backed candidates at the polls.

This should read; " ... there was a clear [difference in] public perception between the competing candidates on the issue of common sense gun violence prevention measures ... "

And we can, in part, thank the NRA ....

The challenge now is for our elected officials to realize that
supporting things like Brady background checks to keep criminals and
terrorists from buying guns from legitimate sources, and enforcing the
laws applicable to gun dealers to make sure they don't contribute to
the market in illegal guns by allowing straw purchases, makes good
sense from a political as well a policy perspective.

Indeed, the NRA has a history of embracing such things after they are instituted. Remember? "... Enforce all gun laws"?

You can not support things that are stupid (and otherwise unacceptable), and when the authors of stupid roll out more off the same, suddenly attempt to dethrone them intellectually.

-------------------------------

http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org

 

[hoji]

I think it is great that the NRA spent millions on political losers.
Now maybe they will get it together and endorse truly pro Constitution candidates, instead of whomever has an "R" by their name.
And yes ,I know that they endorsed some pro-gun Democrats, but we all know that the majority of the time they will endorse a "D" or "F" rated Republican incumbant over a "B" rated Democrat.{ and as far as I can tell, they will never get behind a third party, solidly pro gun candidate}

 

[RealGun]

I think it is great that the NRA spent millions on political losers.
Now maybe they will get it together and endorse truly pro Constitution candidates, instead of whomever has an "R" by their name.

Who are these "pro-Constitution" candidates? NRA would not be very popular to spend money on candidates with no chance of winning. They have to be responsible to contributions. What a candidate needs behind his name is not an R or D but a pro-gun rating a lot better than the opponent. When they are the same or close the incumbent gets the reward of the endorsement. He or she is also the proven quantity. Best to look at why that incumbent or open seat candidate is more often a Republican.

And yes ,I know that they endorsed some pro-gun Democrats,

Only one...Lampson (D) of TX, running against an A rated Republican (Sekula Gibbs) who was to replace Tom Delay in the brief remainder of the 109th Congress. There is a story there, I am sure.

but we all know that the majority of the time they will endorse a "D" or "F" rated Republican incumbant over a "B" rated Democrat.

I didn't find that to be true when analyzing the actual election. Got any examples?

{ and as far as I can tell, they will never get behind a third party, solidly pro gun candidate}

I am sure they will leave promotion of a third party up to that party. I expect that when NRA spends money, they expect to have some chance of winning that seat. They would also be interested in building voting majorities, not dividing to be conquered.

Sorry to confuse with facts.

 

[cbsbyte]

NRA does back Democrats

On the state level, the NRA backed several Mass Democrat legislators over their Republican challangers.

 

[RealGun]

On the state level, the NRA backed several Mass Democrat legislators over their Republican challangers.

The context there is that 13 endorsed Democrats were unopposed and 7 were incumbents (always favored with decent ratings).

 

[tellner]

The NRA is effective at fund-raising, pressing the flesh and being clubby with the right sorts. Its effectiveness at actually defending and extending our rights is questionable at best. It's a lot like the HRC in that regard.

 

[hillbilly]

Wow, I'm shocked.

People actually waste time reading Arianna Huffington's internet tripe?

Amazing!

hillbilly

 

[crucible]

Wow, I'm shocked.

People actually waste time reading Arianna Huffington's internet tripe?

Amazing!

Worse even, some even believe the FUD (fear, uncertainly, doubt) trolls that come from it. If the NRA was so emasulated, they wouldn't be nearly so hated by much of the left as they are.

C-

 

[tellner]

The terrible thing about her trash is that she usually uses unfair tactics like facts unlike the Heroes of the Right like O'Reilly, Coulter, Mikey Weiner (Mike Savage's actual real name), Rush and the rest of that crew of power pimps.

 

[hoji]

The fact is, the NRA need draconian gun control laws to stay alive.
They have to keep membership up.
http://www.nrawol.com/ratings.htm

 

[Orthonym]

The NRA has always been in bed with the Feds, IMHO. It was started after The War by US Generals, concerned that Damyankees had not been able to shoot as well as we had done.

 

[Standing Wolf]

i think that, after the patriot act, more and more Democrats are realizing why the second amendment exists.

Now you know why they're redoubling their efforts to eviscerate the Second Amendment.

 

[Kowboy]

All:

Gun opponents have sure knowledge that win or lose, NRA dollars will be working against them.

That's fine in my book,

Kowboy

 

[Silver Bullet]

For anyone doubting the NRA’s power on our behalf:

http://www.nramemberscouncils.com/siliconvalley/1805Results.html

Note in particular this quote from Feinstein (speaking of the NRA):

Quote:
"I'm a bit numb ... They had the power to turn around at least 60 votes in the Senate. That's amazing to me."
- Senator Feinstein as quoted in the NY Times 3/3/04

Since then, the gun-liability bill has been passed without the AWB renewal provision.

Anyone wanting more facts can carefully review this thread:

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228378&page=3,

in particular posts #56 and #66.

 

[Hyunchback]

Colorado's Governor's Race

The Colorado Governor's race boiled down to mudslinging and tactics.

The former Denver DA who won the race should have been smeared but the Republican party took turns with their candidate in shooting his own feet.

They found solid material to use against the former DA who was granting special favors to illegal aliens so they wouldn't get deported for committing crimes. Some of these got arrested for really heinous crimes, like one who molested a child.

The trick was, though, that this illegal was in the Colorado system under one false identity and using another when arrested later in California. The Republican candidate used NCIS data.

The fight then went down to how wrong it was of him to use NCIS data, not how totally evil it was of the Denver DA's office to go around letting law-breaking illegal aliens remain in this country to commit worse crimes.

Needless to say the really big local money was backing the Denver DA because he was softer on illegal aliens. The big money boys exploit these people for their fat profit margins and don't want to lose out on a class of virtual slaves.

The only people bringing up the gun issue was the NRA and the local affiliate CSSA. The anti-gun press avoided pointing out the truth that Ritter is a rabid anti from way back and putting him in power with the current state speaker of the House is a total slap in the face to gun owners.

They realized that if they published the truth their fair-haired boy wouldn't be able to turn the entire state into Sanctuary for illegal aliens.

It didn't help that Beauprez wasn't totally hardcore on the issue. His bank welcomed the use of the phoney Matricula card for ID when illegals want to use a bank. Never mind that you or I would have to just about do a DNA test to prove we are the person we say we are when doing banking. We aren't the Chosen Peons.

 

[JohnBT]

"The terrible thing about her trash is that she usually uses unfair tactics like facts"

<snicker>

And what wonderful facts they are...useful, groundbreaking, profound facts...here are a couple I just copied off her front page...

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