WASHINGTON â€" With members of Congress back in their home states for recess this week, activists pushing for tougher gun laws are hitting two senators with new appeals on television, asking them to change their votes.
A liberal group, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Wednesday that it was spending $50,000 on a television ad in Montana to pressure Max Baucus, the state’s retiring Democratic senator, to support an enhanced background check system for gun buyers.
A woman identified as Claire Kelly, a Montanan and a gun owner, looks into the camera as she describes defending herself from a home invasion as she hid in a closet with a handgun. “Guns can protect us, but we’re less safe with guns in the wrong hands,†she says, adding that 79 percent of voters in her state support background checks. “So why did Senator Max Baucus vote against us?â€
She closes the ad saying, “Now that you’re retiring, please put Montana first.â€
In New Hampshire, Senator Kelly Ayotte is the subject of a new ad from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the group financed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City. The ad features a cast of real New Hampshire voters who express dismay that Ms. Ayotte, a Republican, voted against strengthening background checks.
The ad hits Ms. Ayotte on her strongest credential with New Hampshire voters: her background as an attorney general with a tough-justice approach.
“Why didn’t she listen to us in New Hampshire?†says one. “Senator Ayotte is giving criminals a pass,†says another. “Police support background checks. Why didn’t she side with them?†asks a third.
Since the beginning of the year, television advertising in the campaigns for and against gun control has added up to about $8.5 million, according to the Kantar Media Campaign Media Analysis Group. That was spent on 19,875 ads that ran in states from Missouri to Massachusetts to Illinois.
The biggest advertiser by far was Mr. Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which put $4.5 million to run nearly 11,000 spots. The second-biggest spender was also Mr. Bloomberg, who through his “super PAC,†Independence USA, spent another $1.8 million to run about 1,500 commercials.
The overwhelming majority of the money and airtime devoted to gun ads were on commercials that pushed for greater gun control, the Kantar data shows.
By contrast, the National Rifle Association spent just $105,000 on television ads that ran just 57 times. Another pro-Second Amendment group, the National Association for Gun Rights, spent about $165,000.
