The NRA Might Not Hold As Much Sway Over Elections As You Think

The NRA Might Not Hold As Much Sway Over Elections As You Think

by Sam Levine at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nra-power-study_568eb360e4b0a2b6fb6f2205

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The National Rifle Association, often described as one of the groups most feared by lawmakers and often cited as a prominent obstacle standing in the way of gun control, may not be as powerful at influencing elections as it claims.

A new analysis, conducted by Douglas E. Schoen, LLC, found that the vast majority of candidates in races where the NRA spent over $100,000 were unsuccessful in 2012. The analysis also found that while more than half of the candidates the NRA supported in 2012 were successful, over 92 percent of the money the group spent went towards unsuccessful races.

The study was commissioned by the family of Kenneth Lerer, who is chairman of BuzzFeed and Betaworks and a co-founder and former chairman of The Huffington Post. In a post on Medium, Lerer wrote that his family commissioned the story after the 2012 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and is choosing to release it now because gun control is back in the news after President Barack Obama announced executive actions earlier this week.

The analysis looked at the 15 national races in 2012 where the NRA spent more than $100,000, and found that the group's aggressive efforts were only successful in three of them.



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