"We Do Absolutely Anything They Ask": How the NRA's Grading System Keeps Congress on Lockdown

[Triana]

NOTE: FROM JULY 2012

. . .

It's pretty simple, actually: the NRA employs a rating system based on each member's voting history. Here's how it works. Before most votes having anything to do with gun rights, and even some that actually don't, the NRA will announce that they will be "scoring" the vote, meaning that they will take this vote into account when assembling a letter grade to assign to each candidate. (Some sample grades are here.) In part because House members have to run for reelection every two years, the NRA grades have become a vital part of how candidates portray themselves to voters—and conservative and swing-district members will do everything they can to keep a good rating.

I asked a Democratic legislative staffer for a first-person description of the NRA's power on the Hill. Here's the response I got, on the condition that I not provide any further identifying information. It's pretty breathtaking.

We do absolutely anything they ask and we NEVER cross them—which includes asking permission to cosponsor any bills endorsed by the Humane Society (the answer is usually no) and complying with their demand to oppose the DISCLOSE Act, neither of which have anything to do with guns. They've completely shut down the debate over gun control. It's really incredible. I'm not sure when we decided that a Democrat in a marginal district who loses his A rating from the NRA automatically loses reelection. Because it's not like we do everything other partisan organizations like the Chamber [of Commerce] or NAM [National Association of Manufacturers] tell us to...

Pandering to the NRA is the probably worst part of my job. I can justify the rest of it—not just to keep the seat, but because I believe most of the positions he takes are consistent with what his constituents want. But sucking up to the NRA when something like Colorado happens is hard to stomach.

Progressives are trying to do some myth-busting on this front, propagating statistics about how ineffective the NRA's political spending is and holding an event today at the Center for American Progress called "After Aurora: Dispelling the Myth of NRA Power." Mark Glaze, the director of the Bloomberg-affiliated Mayors Against Illegal Guns and a participant in Tuesday's panel, acknowledges that the prospects for legislative action are dim. But he told me yesterday that Bloomberg and MAIG plan to keep pushing on the idea that the NRA is, in essence, a paper tiger. "In the past four electoral cycles," Glaze said, "the NRA's real as opposed to perceived influence has been virtually nil. And we're going to get Democratic and Republican donors who care about this issue to ask the candidates what they're going to do about it."

THE REST:

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/blogs/death-race/2012/07/nra-grades-and-congress.html