PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
Why Rand Paul Is Unwelcome at NRA Gun Rights Convention :: 04/11/2015
Sen. Rand Paul wasn’t invited to speak at this weekend’s National Rifle Association annual convention because the Kentucky Republican is caught in the crossfire between competing gun-rights organizations.
Top NRA officials are unhappy that Mr. Paul has for years lent his name to fundraising solicitations for the National Association for Gun Rights, a group that fashions itself a more conservative alternative to NRA. Mr. Paul’s aides have been told by the NRA he will be unwelcome to participate at NRA events as long as he remains affiliated with NAGR, according to people familiar with the conversation.
Publicly, the NRA chalked up Mr. Paul’s absence from Nashville to scheduling concerns. The convention has a packed three-day schedule of political speeches – at least nine other would-be 2016 presidential candidates are scheduled to appear, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence was on the schedule but cancelled this week.
And Mr. Paul didn’t seem terribly interested in interrupting his campaign kickoff to appear before the NRA. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson were also not initially invited to speak. But each was granted a slot on the dais after they asked to appear, an official said. Mr. Paul made no such request, nor did New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was also not invited.
NAGR President Dudley Brown said Wednesday that Mr. Paul is the only current or likely 2016 candidate affiliated with his organization. Mr. Paul remains a NAGR member, Mr. Brown said, but added that it is unclear if NAGR will continue to use Mr. Paul’s name in fundraising appeals now that he has officially launched a presidential campaign.
The Kentucky senator, Mr. Brown said, is an excellent fundraiser for NAGR.
“It was no secret that Sen. Paul is more pro-gun than the NRA,” Mr. Brown said.
Mr. Brown slammed the NRA as a tool of the Washington insiders Mr. Paul has focused his campaign on opposing.
“I’ve been a gun lobbyist for 22 years and there’s never been a point at which we did not have tension,” he said. “We’re younger, we’re hungrier and we care less about the cocktail parties in Washington, D.C.”
Top NRA officials declined to comment about Mr. Paul’s exclusion from the conference. But executive director Chris Cox dismissed the NAGR as an organization concerned more with raising money for its consultants than with advancing pro-gun legislation.
“It’s amusing when some self-proclaimed ‘gun groups’ try to take credit for the work of the five million men and women of the NRA,” Mr. Cox said in an email. “Despite their rhetoric, they haven’t moved a single vote in Congress.”
Mr. Paul’s association with NAGR, which dates back at least to his 2010 campaign, is emblematic of his enduring relationships with the political consultants who drove his father’s presidential bids.
One consultant involved in both Mr. Paul’s campaign and NAGR is Michael Rothfeld, who founded the gun group and remains on its board. In 2010, Mr. Rothfeld’s direct mail firm, Saber Communications, was paid $847,000 by Mr. Paul’s Senate campaign. The family connection goes deeper: In 2012, Mr. Rothfeld’s firm was paid $7.7m by the Ron Paul presidential campaign – 19 cents out of every dollar the elder Mr. Paul raised.
Mr. Rothfeld said Wednesday in a brief e-mail exchange that he is working for Mr. Paul’s 2016 presidential campaign but declined to be interviewed.
Another connection is Virginia attorney David Warrington, who serves as NAGR’s chairman and in 2012 was the general counsel for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign. Mr. Warrington did not respond to requests for comment.
Top Paul aide Doug Stafford said the Kentuckian didn’t ask to attend the NRA convention because he is on his campaign kickoff tour this week.
“Sen. Paul is a champion of the Second Amendment and the strongest voice for freedom in the U.S. Senate. He has an unblemished record of support for gun rights,” Mr. Stafford said. “Sen. Paul is happy to work with pro-Second Amendment groups and will always make the issue a top priority.”
But in 2013, Mr. Stafford, told Politico that Mr. Paul was not responsible for the actions NAGR took after Mr. Paul helped the group raise money.
Mr. Brown dismissed the importance of the connections between the Paul campaigns and the NAGR.
“Imagine that,” he said. “People in politics know each other.”
The rift between Mr. Paul and the NRA is hardly ideological. During his 2010 Senate campaign he received an A rating from the organization. In a 2013 radio interview Mr. Paul criticized New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who for his 2013 re-election campaign was given a C grade from the NRA, for chiding the gun-rights organization.
Mr. Paul didn’t directly address gun rights during his campaign announcement speech Tuesday in Louisville, Ky. During a Fox News interview Tuesday Mr. Paul declared he is “a great defender of the Second Amendment.”
Mr. Paul may be missed more at next year’s NRA national convention, which is scheduled to take place beginning May 19 in Louisville, the largest city in his home state. Without breaking ties with NAGR, Mr. Paul, then certain to be either the Republican nominee for president or running for re-election to the Senate, likely won’t be invited to speak to the group then either.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/04/09/why-rand-paul-is-unwelcome-at-nra-gun-rights-convention/
