President Obama has activated his advocacy group, Organizing for Action, to tackle gun control, posing a fascinating test of whether he will be able to convert the formidable organizing machine that propelled him to a resounding reelection victory into a lobbying engine that can bring him legislative success.
The group kicked off its “day of action” yesterday, staging more than 100 events across the country to encourage action on gun control, such as parties to write letters to Congress and the media, rallies with local “surrogates” such as police chiefs and mayors, and candlelight vigils in 80 congressional districts on behalf of victims of gun violence.
In addition, the group bought nearly $100,000 in print ads to pressure 13 members of Congress, such as senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Susan Collins of Maine, and House members Daniel Webster and Bill Young of Florida, John Kline of Minnesota, Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania, and Buck McKeon and Jeff Denham in California.
They are all Congress members who have not yet expressed an opinion on background checks but who OFA believes could be swayed. OFA is focusing on background checks because it appears to be the most popular of the president’s proposals, which also include bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
The president got the group fired up with a pep talk after his State of the Union address last week, using a call-in to 1,200 house parties organized by OFA across the country.
“I hope what I said tonight resonated with you, but remember that me saying it doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “To get it passed, to get it signed, to get it implemented, to get it done — that’s going to require a big push from you guys.”
Obama’s election campaign spent $2 billion and was widely credited with being the best organized, most technologically savvy political campaign in the history of presidential politics. Not wanting all that talent and insight to go to waste, Obama took the rare step of deciding the campaign could stay together, working on the hard issues that he will be facing in his second term.
“We decided to focus on background-check loopholes today,” OFA spokeswoman Katie Hogan said. “It’s not that we don’t support the entire plan to curb gun violence; we do. But since there’s such a broad consensus about background checks, we thought it was important for us on our first ‘day of action’ to push members of Congress who have yet to take a stance.”
In an email to Obama supporters, Jon Carson, the executive director of OFA, urged them to tweet or call their members of Congress.
“If Congress passes legislation requiring universal background checks — which are supported by 92 percent of Americans and even 74 percent of NRA members — it will be an important step toward keeping our kids and communities safer from gun violence,” Carson wrote. “But it won’t happen unless we demand it… With just a couple clicks, you and many other constituents will create a drumbeat that can’t be ignored.”
