The National Rifle Association, the nation's leading pro-gun advocacy organization, poured $481,437 into Nevada congressional races from 1998 through 2012.
Included was $424,533 in campaign contributions and independent expenditures assisting seven current or former members of the state's congressional delegation.
The NRA also contributed a combined $14,300 to three failed congressional candidates and spent $42,604 to defeat three others, including $40,262 against Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley last year in her unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate.
According to OpenSecrets.org, which is run by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, the NRA provided financial backing to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Dean Heller, Reps. Joe Heck and Mark Amodei, former Reps. Jon Porter and Jim Gibbons and former Sen. John Ensign. Porter benefited the most from the gun rights advocacy group, a combined $176,669 in campaign donations and independent expenditures, since the 1998 election cycle and Reid is the lone Democratic recipient.
The NRA also contributed $22,250 in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles to Nevada legislators and legislative candidates, including $15,500 to Republicans and $6,750 to Democrats.
The NRA also has received $32,565 in contributions of at least $200 each to its federal political action committee from Nevadans since 1997. Although the Las Vegas Valley represents the majority of the state's population, only roughly one-third of the contributions to the NRA have come from valley residents.
Numerous Nevada politicians have also received NRA endorsements over the years. Republican Gibbons got an endorsement from the organization in 2006 when he successfully ran for governor. They cited his "long-standing, proven commitment to the Second Amendment."
"We know he will protect the rights of law-abiding gun owners in Nevada," said Chris Cox, chairman of the NRA Political Victory Fund. "As a congressman representing Nevada's 2nd Congressional District, Jim Gibbons voted to put an end to the gun control lobby's predatory attacks on the American firearms industry, secured funding for the world class Clark County Shooting Park, supported the NRA-backed Veterans Heritage Firearms Act of 2005 and consistently defended our hunting heritage."
The NRA in 2012 also endorsed Bob Beers for Las Vegas City Council Ward 2 and Heller for Senate. Heller, who received an ‘A' grade from the NRA, was cited for supporting Second Amendment rights for individuals to keep and bear arms and for opposing international treaties that would impose restrictions on American gun owners.
"Heller cosponsored HR 822, ‘The National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act,' which would ensure that law-abiding Americans with valid concealed handgun permits would be able to carry a concealed handgun in any other state that does not prohibit concealed carry," the NRA stated in October. "He opposes a federal gun database and voted for an amendment to prevent the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from circumventing the will of Congress by centralizing records of thousands of Americans' long gun purchases."
The NRA said that by contrast, ‘F'-rated Berkley "has a long history of opposing our rights."
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre joined Reid at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Clark County Shooting Complex in June 2010. Cox wrote this about the park:
"Dedicated citizens, gun owners, hunters, and competitive and recreational shooters joined together to provide the support that was needed for a project of this size to win approval. It also took both land and money to make it happen, and for that the people of Clark County have U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to thank.
"Sen. Reid worked for years to secure the transfer to Clark County of the now-former federal land the range complex occupies. Further, he secured $61 million through the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act to fund the facility's development. His dedication to this project is just one of the ways Sen. Reid has demonstrated his support for gun owners and the Second Amendment."
Yet two months later, in August 2010, Cox issued another statement announcing that the NRA withheld endorsing Reid's re-election bid that year because of the senator's support of Elena Kagan for the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Her evasive testimony exacerbated grave concerns we had about her long-standing hostility toward the Second Amendment," Cox wrote. "As a result, the NRA strongly opposed her confirmation and made it clear at the time that we would be scoring this important vote."
The NRA, though, also refused to endorse Reid's 2010 Republican opponent, Sharron Angle. That refusal drew a strong rebuke from the National Association for Gun Rights, which contributed $1,000 toward her unsuccessful campaign.The association described Angle as a "100% pro-gun challenger" to Reid.
"Every day brings a clearer message of who the NRA is truly interested in representing -- and it's not the individual gun owners," the association stated in September 2010.
The NRA, based in Fairfax, Va., employs Daniel Reid of Sacramento, Calif., as a paid lobbyist when the Nevada Legislature meets in Carson City.
