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G.O.P. Discovers Useful Voter
Outreach Tool: Gun Sweepstakes
APRIL 17, 2014
Hand over your email address
to a political campaign, and typically all you can expect in return is an
endless stream of solicitations for money.
But one supporter of Greg
Brophy, a state senator who ran for governor in Colorado, got something else: a Smith &
Wesson M&P15 rifle.
It was the top prize in “Greg Brophy’s Gun Club
Giveaway,” an online contest last month in which people handed over personal
information that is the currency of modern political campaigns — first and last
names, email addresses and phone numbers — and in exchange, one lucky winner
would get the gun.
“I tricked this baby out,”
said Mr. Brophy, a Republican, boasting about how he had added all manner of
accessories — extra grips, a backup sight and a strap so it could be slung
effortlessly over the shoulder.
Online gun sweepstakes have
become one of the most useful tools for campaign outreach in the 2014
Republican primaries. Across the country, from a race for sheriff in California to the United States Senate primary in South Carolina,
candidates are using high-powered pistols and rifles as a lure to build up
their donor lists and expand their base of support.
The method may be new, but
the concept is actually a durable campaign device. Take a group of possible
supporters who are highly motivated around an issue, in this case gun ownership
and Second Amendment rights, and pique their interest with good marketing.
Then, once you have their attention, solicit their personal information and
follow up to ask for support and money.
For Mr. Brophy, the entries
came pouring in. “Thousands of people,” he said. “It was awesome.” For the
drawing, he used a website that generated a random number. It stopped on No.
775, and the winner was a deputy in a county sheriff’s office. And once he
passed a background check, the gun was his.
The National Rifle
Association, which has been doing Publishers Clearinghouse-style gun
sweepstakes since the 1980s, figured out the allure of free guns years ago.
Back then, it used direct mail. Now, it employs a range of online campaigns,
including Facebook-based contests that provide the organization not just with
people’s names, but also with their information-rich public profiles and lists
of their friends. Millions of people have entered these contests, the group
said.
In a Republican primary,
there are few constituencies more politically motivated — and therefore more
important to reach — than passionate gun owners. And with today’s campaigns
making critical contact with voters online, free guns seemed to be one of the
easiest ways to cut through the noise.
“This is just a more
aggressive version of things campaigns are already doing,” said Zac Moffatt, who
oversaw Mitt Romney’s digital strategy in 2012 and founded the firm Targeted
Victory, which develops online campaigns. “You’ve got to break through,” he
added, noting that guns would undoubtedly draw in potential voters who could be
invaluable to a Republican candidate. “It could get you a couple extra thousand
votes you didn’t otherwise know about.”
Lee Bright, a state senator
from South Carolina
who is challenging Senator Lindsey Graham in the Republican primary, has given
away two guns, one online and one by direct mail. In the online drawing, the
prize was an AR-15 rifle.
“We thought it was right in
our wheelhouse,” Mr. Bright said. “We’re as strong Second Amendmentists as they
come. And we wanted to reach out to like-minded folks.”
Senate in Georgia, “would
like nothing more than to destroy the Second Amendment,” Mr. Broun said.
In Colorado, Mr. Brophy was not the only
Republican in the governor’s race who held a gun raffle. Tom Tancredo, the
former congressman and presidential candidate, also had one.
His pitchman, the rocker and
N.R.A. board member Ted Nugent, had a dark message. “We all better wake up and
fight back together before it’s too late,” Mr. Nugent wrote in an email to supporters.
“Enter to win a semiautomatic AR-15 — when you’re done, consider making a
donation of $25 or more to help Tom keep our freedoms protected.”
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