{"id":9563,"date":"2018-02-22T07:00:15","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=9563"},"modified":"2018-02-21T17:12:17","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T22:12:17","slug":"who-is-getting-money-from-the-nra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=9563","title":{"rendered":"Who is Getting Money from the NRA?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In the wake of the latest mass school shooting, many are asking about the influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA), which is dedicated to blocking virtually all restrictions on firearms.\u00a0 The NRA has not been particularly successful in Maryland, where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/md-politics\/signing-of-md-gun-control-bill-to-launch-new-legal-battles-fight-for-public-support\/2013\/05\/15\/2c68f7d8-bd99-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_story.html?utm_term=.1555df3d74bd\">one of the nation\u2019s strictest gun control laws was signed by Governor Martin O\u2019Malley five years ago<\/a>.\u00a0 But that has not stopped the NRA from trying to influence Maryland politicians by contributing money.<\/p>\n<p>We looked up all contributions to state and local political committees in Maryland from the NRA itself and its PAC, the NRA Political Victory Fund, on the State Board of Elections website.\u00a0 We identified 49 contributions totaling $22,450 from the 2006 cycle on.\u00a0 Of that total, $12,300 (55%) went to Democratic committees and $10,150 (45%) went to Republicans.\u00a0 Fourteen committees received $500 or more and we identify them below.\u00a0 We also list the last date of contribution from the NRA; bear in mind that some folks on this list have not received NRA money in several years.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/NRA-Contributions-Top-Maryland-Recipients.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9564\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/NRA-Contributions-Top-Maryland-Recipients.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"730\" height=\"383\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/NRA-Contributions-Top-Maryland-Recipients.png 730w, https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/NRA-Contributions-Top-Maryland-Recipients-300x157.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 730px) 100vw, 730px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>All of the above candidates were incumbents except Tim Robinson, who ran as a Republican against Senator Jim Brochin (D-42) in 2014.\u00a0 Brochin was himself a former recipient of NRA money and is now running for Baltimore County Executive.\u00a0 Democratic Senators Kathy Klausmeier (D-8) and Jim Mathias (D-38) are facing tough GOP challengers this cycle and have accepted NRA money in the last year.<\/p>\n<p>Ten of the above recipients were in the General Assembly when the <a href=\"http:\/\/mgaleg.maryland.gov\/webmga\/frmMain.aspx?pid=billpage&amp;tab=subject3&amp;id=sb0281&amp;stab=01&amp;ys=2013RS\">Firearm Safety Act of 2013<\/a>, Governor O\u2019Malley\u2019s landmark gun control law, was passed after the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sandy_Hook_Elementary_School_shooting\">Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre<\/a>.\u00a0 Those voting for the bill included Senators Mike Miller (D-27) and Jim Brochin (D-42).\u00a0 Those voting no included Senators John Astle (D-30), Ed DeGrange (D-32), George Edwards (R-1), Kathy Klausmeier (D-8), Jim Mathias (D-38), E.J. Pipkin (R-36) and Bryan Simonaire (R-31) and Delegate Tony O\u2019Donnell (R-29C).<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Astle\u2019s campaign committee actually gave money to the NRA.\u00a0 In 2006,\u00a0Astle\u2019s account made a $300 expenditure to the NRA and remarked, \u201cThis membership increases Senator Astle\u2019s visibility and allows him to network with potential voters and contributors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Astle-expenditure-to-NRA.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9569\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Astle-expenditure-to-NRA.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1919\" height=\"619\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Astle-expenditure-to-NRA.png 1919w, https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Astle-expenditure-to-NRA-300x97.png 300w, https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Astle-expenditure-to-NRA-768x248.png 768w, https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Astle-expenditure-to-NRA-1024x330.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1919px) 100vw, 1919px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>One more recipient of NRA cash stands out: \u00a0Derek Hopkins, the Republican Register of Wills in Harford County, who collected $100 from the NRA in 2010.\u00a0 Perhaps this is unsurprising since mass proliferation of guns and the writing of wills seem sadly interrelated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adam Pagnucco. In the wake of the latest mass school shooting, many are asking about the influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA), which is dedicated to blocking virtually all restrictions on firearms.\u00a0 The NRA has not been particularly successful in Maryland, where one of the nation\u2019s strictest gun control laws was signed by &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=9563\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Who is Getting Money from the NRA?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,135,224,141],"tags":[1545,2142,358,680,1570,1533,359,2143],"class_list":["post-9563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-guns","category-john-astle","category-mike-miller","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-guns","tag-jim-brochin","tag-jim-mathias","tag-john-astle","tag-kathy-klausmeier","tag-mike-miller-2","tag-nra"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-2uf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9563"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9573,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9563\/revisions\/9573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}