Ayotte Approval Drops 15 Points After Gun Vote

Sen. Kelly Ayotte's approval ratings have been in free fall since her infamous vote against background checks on gun purchases.

Last October, Public Policy Polling conducted a survey in New Hampshire which showed Ayotte with 48 percent approval and 35 percent disapproval. Shortly before Ayotte's vote (April 4 -9), a  University of New Hampshire survey
gave Ayotte 50 percent approval against 25 percent disapproval. Both polls
showed strong support for Ayotte.

After her background check, Ayotte's ratings went upside down. A new Public Policy Polling survey (April 19 - 21) showed Ayotte with only 44 percent approval and 46 percent disapproval. That's a drop of 15 points from her October numbers.

Her unpopularity was reflected in newspaper editorials around the Granite State. The Valley News (4/20/2013) wrote, "Meanwhile, those who believed that the deaths of 20 elementary schoolchildren and six adults in Newtown, Conn. would result in sufficient horror and revulsion to overcome Second Amendment absolutism are left to wonder: Just how many deaths will it take before elected officials like Ayotte summon the courage to follow the wishes of their constituents rather than the dictates of the gun lobby."

The Portsmouth Herald wrote (4/21/2013), "If we don't like how she voted Wednesday, it's up to all of us who care about this issue to show Ayotte she was mistaken by voting her out of office."

Editor Felice Belman of the Concord Monitor commented (4/24/13) that her newspaper has been flooded with anti-Ayotte letters. "Since the vote, we have been deluged with letters, the vast majority critical of Ayotte's decision. I'm not surprised at the sentiment expressed by the readers - it mimics the polling on this issue in recent weeks, both nationally and in the state, which has found that about 90 percent of Americans and New Hampshire residents in favor of background checks. . . the sheer volume is making a point about the fury of local residents over the vote in a way that news reporting hasn't. Consider the writers' language in describing Ayotte: 'out of touch,' 'enabler' of mass murderers, 'spineless' and 'disgusting.'"

In its editorial, the Concord Monitor (4/21/2013) commented, "Ayotte explained her position by saying that she could not support the bipartisan bill because she believes it would place unnecessary burdens on law-abiding gun owners and allow for potential overreach by the federal government into private gun sales. Her statement is utter nonsense."

What! Background checks would place "unnecessary burdens on law-abiding gun owners?" You mean they might have to travel a few extra miles to a gun shop to have the background check conducted? You mean they might have to wait a few minutes (the average time is around 5 minutes)  while the background check is carried out?

What about the burden placed upon 20 elementary school children and six teachers killed at Sandy Hook who now lie dead in cemeteries, their lives cut short by a gun-crazed madman? What about the burden of grief placed upon their families? As usual, gun militants think only of their own selfish needs and obsessively focus on firearms.

Ayotte wasn't the only senator to suffer as a result of a vote against background checks. Public Policy Polling(4/29/2013) writes, "New PPP polls in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, and Ohio find serious backlash against the five Senators who voted against background checks in those states. Each of them has seen their approval numbers decline,and voters say they're less likely to support them the next time they're up for re-election."

Well, what happened to those senators who voted for background checks? Did pro-gun activists wreak havoc upon their approval ratings? Here's a good test case. Republican Pat Toomey,  the co-author of the Manchin-Toomey background check bill, voted for checks. Toomey is a Republican and an NRA member with an A rating from that organization. You might think that gun absolutists would be particularly offended by his defection and his approval ratings would suffer badly. But, as a matter of fact, according to a Quinnipiac poll, his approval rose 7 points to his highest rating ever (The Hill, 4/26/2013).

What's going on here? Aren't the NRA and gun absolutists all-powerful? If you cross them, aren't you finished politically? No, it turns out that the NRA and gun absolutists are paper tigers. When  rookie politicians receive a flood of emails from gun absolutists, listen to  a torrent of telephone messages from them,
and see their comments clog newspaper columns, the political novices become
convinced that gun militants rule the world and vote accordingly.

But they aren't all-powerful. As the Senators' ratings showed following the gun vote, gun extremists are simply a strident minority. The great majority of Americans are appalled that 30,000 of their countrymen and women are killed by guns each year and are ready for gun safety legislation, if not now, then later.