Of these 56 candidates, only 19 who won their elections, and of these 19 only 4 won by margin of less than 4% (where without the NRA’s 2% endorsement bump, they may have lost).
Notably, some of the NRA’s top recipients in the Senate lost their races — the NRA spent $746,078 trying to elect Ken Buck in Colorado, $414,100 trying to elect Dino Rossi in Washington, and $258,323 in an attempt to elect Carly Fiorina in California. N.p., 13 Feb. 2012.
By Douglas E. Schoen, Founder, Douglas E. Schoen, LLC, “My family commissioned this study, conducted by Douglas E. Schoen, in the Spring of 2013, approximately four months after the shooting at The Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. We have been waiting to release this report until a time when the issue of gun violence was back in the public’s eye. In the first, the NRA spent $346,902 in support of Arizona Republican Jeff Flake in his Senate race against Democrat Richard Carmona. In this race, the NRA Political Victory Fund alone (not including the NRA ILA or any other spending arm) spent $168,758 in opposition to Lugar in Indiana’s 2012 Republican Senate primary. [68], For example, in 2012 the independent expenditure group Service Employees International Union PEA — Federal spent only $5,306,123, but had an rate of Return on Investment of 91.20%[69], as it successfully directed $4,839,184 of the 5 million it spent. 2013.
N.p., 21 Nov. 2010. “The Myth Of NRA Dominance Part I: The NRA’s Ineffective Spending.” ThinkProgress RSS. N.p., 22 Feb. 2012. Furthermore, according to OpenSecrets, in 2012 Hatch’s campaign received $424,000 in funding from the Energy & Natural Resources sector, $750,645 from the Finance, Insurance & Real Estate sector, and $912,625 from the Health sector.
When spending more than $100,000 on candidates in 2012, the NRA was only successful in effecting the outcome it desired in 3 cases, and was unsuccessful in 12 (a win rate of only 20%), indicating that even when the NRA puts the full force of its PAC and its lobbying arm behind an election, it has little decisive sway, and is deeply unpredictable. A closer look at the NRA’s three major victories in 2012 — races where they invested over $100,000 — is revealing in its own right. N.p., 24 Oct. 2012.
Kenneth B. Lerer is Executive Chairman at BuzzFeed, Inc. View Kenneth B. Lerer’s professional profile on Relationship Science, the database of decision makers. With a more proactive and unified message, and well-coordinated defensive and offensive campaigns, the gun violence prevention movement will be able to engage more successfully with Republican legislators, and provide more reassuring cover for reform-minded Democrats — freeing up these legislators to express their support for meaningful reform, such as background checks, that reflect the majority opinions of the American people. Furthermore, the 2010 midterm elections were not only relatively good for the NRA, with respect to the election of candidates who were receptive to NRA positions and views, they were good for Republicans in general — the party picked up 63 seats in Congress — suggesting that what seems like an NRA success is, in fact, simply the result of a larger shift in political tides and strong anti-Obama sentiment. Thus, we have found that contrary to popular opinion, the NRA does not have the influence they think they do, the NRA’s record has been far from successful in recent election cycles, and the much-coveted NRA endorsements are almost meaningless in terms of success at the polls. In their blitz of Tennessee State Senator Debra Maggart, her NRA-backed opponent had $10,000 on hand before the NRA stepped in.
2013. 16 Jan. 2013. 3. First, the House of Representatives experienced its lowest incumbent re-election rate since 1970: only 85%[54] of incumbents were re-elected, and a full 36 Democrats lost their seats to Republican challengers. 03 June 2013.
[72] “Top All-Time Donors, 1989–2012.” OpenSecrets.org: Money in Politics. [55] Similarly, the Senate also experienced a very low rate of incumbent re-election that year, at 84%. [91], From 2004 to 2010, 84% of the candidates endorsed by the NRA won their races by a margin of 10 points or more, and as has been previously stated, a full 65% of NRA-endorsed candidates won their races by a margin of 20 points or more. Betaworks serves customers in the United States. 18 Apr.
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05 June 2013. http://data.denverpost.com/election/results/us-senate/2010/, [120] “Http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_15326334."