Shooting filled NRA coffers
Trend after Parkland may carry to midterm election
As students marched for gun control after the Parkland shootings, members of the National Rifle Association reached for their checkbooks.
The NRA’s Political Victory Fund recorded its highest monthly contribution total since 2000 after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to an analysis of campaign finance reports by the South Florida Sun Sentinel
The NRA’s campaign fund collected $2.4 million in March, the highest total in 18 years when adjusted for inflation. About 80 percent of the contributions were donations of $200 or less.
Will those surge of contributions bring victory to pro-gun candidates in the fall midterm elections? Campaign finance experts say that haul in and of itself won’t sway elections. The bigger question could be whether younger voters inspired by March for Our Lives demonstrations show up at the polls.
“It is not a lot of money in politics these
days,” said Robert J. Spitzer, a political scientist at SUNY Cortland who has authored five books on gun control. “It’s a good number for them — no question — but in the political ocean of money that we all swim in now it is pretty much a drop in the bucket.”
The NRA’s greatest strength is viewed as its passionate and engaged five million members, said Sarah Bryner, a research director at the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that tracks money in politics.
“The NRA as a political spender is no slouch,” Bryner said. “Money matters. Membership matters, but only to the extent you can mobilize it, which takes money.”
The NRA’s Political Victory Fund, which provides contributions to NRA-endorsed candidates, is just one component of its political spending. The NRA focuses most of its spending on television advertisements and mailers not directly linked to candidates, rather than making direct contributions to lawmakers’ campaign funds.
The NRA spent $54 million during the 2016 election cycle, while gun control interests mustered only about $3 million, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.
The NRA initially halted digital advertising after Parkland. But within four days, it blitzed the internet with ads, increasing its average daily spending from $11,300 before the shooting to $47,300 after the brief advertising pause, according to a Chicago Tribune investigation.
“The NRA sends out messaging to say we are under attack. Your rights are under attack. The antigun people are coming to take away your guns,” Spitzer said. “The fear-based appeal is the most successful way to raise money.”
Groups supporting gun restrictions also hauled in cash after Parkland to support marches and other advocacy efforts.
A GoFundMe page for March for Our Lives raised more than $3.5 million to organize demonstrations and assist the families of victims.
George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg each reportedly made $500,000 donations.
Everytown USA, a group backed by billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, garnered $750,000 in unsolicited online donations to its nonprofit organization during the 24 hours after Parkland, according to a report from Politico. Donations to that fund help to pressure lawmakers to improve gun laws, educate the public about gun issues and mobilize grassroots supporters, according to the organization’s website.
Phoebe Kilgour, a spokeswoman for the group, said Everytown USA has received more than 100,000 donations since the shooting, but she declined to release the dollar amount raised. “We’ve seen a surge in momentum,” she said.
Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ political action committee received $129,589 in contributions in March, while Everytown USA’s political action committee took in $13,580. Giffords — wounded in a mass shooting in 2011 — formed her political action committee to support candidates favoring tighter restrictions on guns.
In some swing districts, the NRA could prove to be a liability for candidates because of a backlash from suburban voters who view the organization as stifling gun reforms, Spitzer said.
Gwen Graham, a Democratic candidate for governor, has already released an ad touting her defeat of an NRA-endorsed opponent backed by the gun lobby.
Marion Hammer, a NRA lobbyist in Florida, said the group stopped giving cash contributions to state candidates because “every time we gave a contribution to a candidate, the media accused NRA of buying legislators.”
The NRA hasn’t given money directly to state candidates in 13 years. The NRA’s national political committee continues to give to federal elected officials from Florida, including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and at least a dozen of the state’s Republican congressmen.
Rubio received $9,900 in direct contributions from the NRA in 2016, but factoring in outside spending not directly tied to his campaign, the NRA spent $3.3 million to help his bid to defeat Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy.
It’s the NRA’s membership that politicians fear, said Matt Grossmann, a political scientist at Michigan State University.
“That is a constituency that votes at high rates, contacts public officials at higher rates,” he said.
As long as that remains the case, the NRA will continue to be a powerful political force, Grossmann said.