No Bang From NRA Bucks

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.