Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Democratic Senators Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mark Begich of Alaska split with their party last year to help Republicans stop a bill strengthening background checks for gun purchases.
They've gotten no help in return from the nation's largest gun lobby.
With both lawmakers facing tough re-election fights, the National Rifle Association has spent $2.6 million supporting Pryor's opponent and isn't endorsing Begich, whose opposition to the gun bill came months after 20 schoolchildren were shot dead.
The spending underlines a broader shift by the NRA to step up support for Republicans at the expense of Democrats, in contrast to the past where it would back Democratic allies.
The NRA "took a lot of heat" from conservatives for helping some Democrats in the 2010 congressional elections "to the obvious detriment of Republicans," said David Kopel, a constitutional law professor at the University of Denver and a gun-rights advocate who writes for the association. Plus, now there are simply fewer pro-gun Democrats, he said.
Andrew Arulanandam, an NRA spokesman, declined to comment for this story.
Boosting Republicans
The NRA, which began airing ads in high-profile Senate races last month, has been spending more aggressively to help Republicans since 2010, according to data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign money.
While the group has overwhelmingly backed Republicans since the 1980s, in 2010 it helped pro-gun House Democrats such as Ike Skelton of Missouri, Allen Boyd of Florida and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota -- all of whom lost.
This election, it has spent $17 million through Oct. 13, almost all to benefit Republicans. That's more than eight times what it shelled out in the 2006 congressional races.
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The April 2013 vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate to halt the background checks measure stung many gun-control advocates following the shooting deaths of 26 children and adults in Newtown, Connecticut. Polls also showed that 90 percent of the public backed expanding background checks.
The vote -- in which five Democrats joined with Republicans -- continued a two-decade losing streak for promoters of gun control.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-10-15/gun-lobby-turns-back-on-senate-democratic-allies