USA Today: Giffords’ super PAC raises $6.5 million
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WASHINGTON – Former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ gun-control super PAC raised $6.5 million during the first six months of the year, according to new figures the organization provided Thursday to USA TODAY.
Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, started the group in January after the massacre Dec. 14 in Newtown, Conn., that killed 26 children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The launch of Americans for Responsible Solutions came on the second anniversary of the massacre in Tucson that killed six, gravely injured Giffords and wounded 13 others.
The group, which includes a super PAC and a non-profit advocacy arm, has built a membership of more than 500,000 in six months and has attracted 72,000 contributors, said Pia Carusone, its executive director and co-founder. The average donation: $64.87.
The totals provide a first look at the fundraising for the political action committee, which must provide details of its receipts and expenditures by July 31 to the Federal Election Commission. The group did not disclose its donors Thursday.
Its advocacy wing raised even more, Carusone said, but she did not provide those figures. Those amounts are due to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service next year.
She said the numbers of contributions to the super PAC show there is broad support for tightening gun-control laws, even as those measures have failed to gain much traction in Congress this year.
“We’re turning the super PAC model on its head,” Carusone said in an interview. “We’ve never before said to the public writ large: We need to all pitch in here to make a difference on this issue.”
Many other super PACs rely on a handful of big donors. For instance, New York City’s billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg provided all the money — more than $8.2 million – that his super PAC spent to influence congressional races last year. He’s also pushing gun control.
The 4 million-member National Rifle Association spent more than $11 million on independent expenditures to support its favored candidates in the past election cycle.
In recent weeks, Americans for Responsible Solutions has taken its message on the road.
Thursday, Carusone headed to Ohio, where the group is opening chapters in Columbus and Cleveland. Last month, Giffords and Kelly concluded a seven-day “Rights and Responsibilities Tour” focused on seven states whose U.S. senators had voted against expanding background checks.
“It’s about communicating to legislators at the state and federal level that their constituents are willing to go to the polls on this issue,” Caruso said.
Kelly and Giffords have emphasized that they both own guns and support the Second Amendment rights of Americans to arm and defend themselves. During the tour, Giffords used a.22 handgun at a shooting range in the Las Vegas area, the first time she has fired a weapon since she was shot in the head.
Giffords, 43, has undergone multiple rounds of speech and physical therapy in the years since.
“We thought the tour was going to be exhausting for her and all of us,” said Carusone, who was Giffords’ chief of staff in Congress. “But for her, it was really energizing. She felt like she was back again, part of a team that’s really making a difference on an issue that’s important to people’s daily lives.”