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“The NRA is prohibited by election law from contributing to politicians’ campaigns.”

“Do you have a source for that?”

As a non-profit, they can’t direct a dime towards anyone’s campaign account (hard money), but if they set up a PAC, they send up to $5,000 per election there, I think, and spend all they want ‘independently’. The PAC is ‘supposed’ to be independent, but we all know how that works.

But a BETTER ANSWER is to tell the truth regarding the NRA. First, they give they give next to nothing to politicians. The last I remember seeing put that around 100th in the list of the biggest donors, with Unions, lawyers, banks, and real estate interests sending orders of magnitude more money.

So why are they so efficient? Very simple, they grade and endorse candidates on gun rights, and for many, many, gun owners that’s all that matters. They’ll send one post-card with the grades and endorsements, and that has more effect on the vote, particularly in Primaries, than 500 mailings from either candidate.

Finally, they’re perfectly willing and often do, support gun-friendly Democrats over Republicans who may claim to be gun friendly, but have no voting history either way. I can’t say that I support this, since they endorsed Harry Reid for re-election (against a good opponent in the general), based on his record, knowing full-well where he’d take the Senate in his last term on gun rights, and how he’d vote. The NRA does need to apply a bit of longer-term strategy - still endorse Democrats if appropriate, but not ones like Reid.