NRA spending $$$ in Rep. Primary against incumbant

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NRA flexes muscle in race
Maggart may not be only candidate guns group targets
3:36 AM, Jul 27, 2012 | 1 Comments

Brian Wilson
The Tennessean
The National Rifle Association has taken an interest in a Sumner County Republican primary for the state House, but its involvement in legislative elections may not end there.

The national guns rights organization has independently spent more than $75,000 in the race to try to push state Rep. Debra Maggart, the Republican Caucus chairwoman, out of office and nominate former tea party leader Courtney Rogers to take her place in the state’s 45th district.

The race is drawing wide attention. Political observers nationwide say it could be an early test of the strength of the NRA, especially in the wake of the Aurora, Colo., theater shootings.

The focus from national and state gun rights groups on this one state House race centers on a single issue — allowing gun owners to leave their firearms in their cars in employee parking lots — that never got a vote by the full House or Senate this spring.

Even as the national gun rights organization acknowledged it rarely takes interest in a Republican primary like this, it may not be the last time it does so if state lawmakers take similar stands on gun rights.

Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, said the group wasn’t picking on one individual legislator but instead went after the one Republican leader with a primary challenger.

“What are we supposed to do? Ignore a legislator that works behind closed doors to work against a bill?” Cox said last week. “She should have called on leadership to bring the bill to the floor.”

The bill that would have allowed gun owners to leave their firearms in their vehicles in parking lots was delayed for weeks in the legislature as Republican leaders refused to schedule a vote on the measure after it passed committees. The NRA and other backers of the legislation worked until the session’s final hours to try to persuade lawmakers to defy leadership and bring the bill to the floor.

They failed. Since the session’s end in May, state and national gun rights groups have pinned the blame on Maggart for the bill’s failure, even as other leaders, including Gov. Bill Haslam, have come forward taking responsibility for that decision.

House Majority Leader Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, told reporters this month that he had more to do with the legislation’s defeat than Maggart did. That led Tennessee Firearms Association Executive Director John Harris to speculate that McCormick could have a primary challenger of his own in two years.

“The NRA is not going away,” Cox said. “The people of Tennessee deserve to know where their legislators stand.”

Maggart and other GOP leaders have repeatedly said final legislation on this issue must balance the property rights of businesses and the Second Amendment rights of gun owners. Cox said that since guns would never enter an employer’s building, that argument isn’t valid.

“This is fundamentally a self-defense issue. This may be about politics for the legislature, but this is life-and-death for us,” he said.

Maggart fights back
As the NRA erected billboards and released radio ads calling for Maggart’s defeat, other third-party groups have also mailed anti-Maggart material to voters. Since then, she has countered with ads of her own and released a two-minute video explaining the “Guns in Parking Lots” legislation, her actions related to it and the response she has gotten for it.

“This attack against me is based on false information in an effort to bully your elected officials and trample your other constitutional rights,” Maggart said in the video.

As she has campaigned in Sumner County, the Hendersonville Republican said Thursday that people have taken issue with a national group coming into their community and trying to influence the race.

“They are concerned about outside forces coming into this race for a candidate they don’t really know,” Maggart said. She also said her track record as a legislator should give her constituents enough reasons to support her.

Until this year, that track record also earned the NRA’s support. Maggart had an “A-plus” rating from the NRA for several years for her work in Second Amendment rights. Currently, the group’s website gives her a “D.”

Other issues raised
At Rogers’ campaign headquarters, just feet away from one of the NRA’s billboards, the former Air Force officer said she is pleased with the additional name recognition she has picked up from the group’s backing. She said she’s not altering her campaign to focus on gun rights, however.

“There are so many other areas. When I talk to voters, they’re interested in education, taxes, jobs, family issues,” she said. “That’s their one issue, but there’s a lot going on.”

Financially, Maggart should have no trouble matching the gun group’s contribution. The three-term legislator reported that her campaign coffers held nearly $150,000, according to her August disclosure. That’s double the amount the NRA inserted into the race.

Rogers reported $11,800 on hand at the end of the same reporting period.

The winner of the primary is expected to face Democratic nominee Jeanette Jackson for the 45th District seat in November.

Chas Sisk contributed to this report.

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The R leadership walked away from the bill because every major corporation in the state said they didn't want it (and most of those CEOs supported Halsam's campaign)