NRA goes after Landrieu on gun control

The National Rife Association released an ad on Monday seeking to tie Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) to President Obama on the issue of gun control. 

The television ad, which is running in select TV markets across Louisiana, according to Bloomberg Politics, starts with Obama’s now infamous campaign cycle statement: “I’m not on the ballot this fall, but make no mistake – these policies are on the ballot,” the president says in the ad. “Every single one of them.” 

{mosads}“That means gun control,” the narrator says. “President Obama pushes extreme gun control that would take away your freedom. Obama put anti-gun justices on the Supreme Court and Mary Landrieu helped him do it. Obama’s policies are on the ballot. On Dec. 6, defeat Barack Obama. Defeat Mary Landrieu.”

 Gun control has largely faded into the background as a campaign issue, but it could be an effective message in the runoff for a deep red Southern state. 

Last year, Landrieu voted in favor of a bipartisan bill to modestly expand background checks, although the bill didn’t garner enough votes to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that the NRA is also sending fliers to voters in Louisiana that shows Landrieu in between Obama and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg is perhaps the wealthiest and highest profile anti-gun advocate in the country and a polarizing figure.

 “The Obama-Bloomberg gun control agenda is a serious threat to your freedoms and we can’t trust Mary Landrieu to stand up for your right of self-protection,” the flier reads.

A spokesperson for Landrieu told the Washington Post that while a Bloomberg-backed group endorsed the Louisiana Democrat, that she “neither touted nor accepted” the endorsement.

“Mike Bloomberg supports a much more intense gun control agenda than what is supported by Mary Landrieu,” the spokesperson said. “Bloomberg has backed an assault weapons ban, limitations on high capacity magazines, and other restrictions that Senator Landrieu has voted against. The common ground they share is universal background checks, something supported by the vast majority of Americans that even the NRA admitted to you would not do anything like they claim in their ads.”

Landrieu trails Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) in the most recent polling in their Dec. 6 runoff for the Louisiana Senate.