The National Rifle Association is dismissing former Democratic Ohio attorney general's Mark Dann's op-ed in which he says he got "in the pocket" of the gun-rights group to protect his political career and now regrets it.
A NRA spokesperson says Dann's column on Cleveland.com is "a desperate attention-seeking ploy" by a politician who left office 10 years ago amid scandal. Dann urged elected officials to follow their principles as the country debates gun control. When former Democratic Ohio Governor Ted Strickland ran for the U.S. Senate, the National Rifle Association unleashed a wave of negative ads that portrayed its one-time ally as interested only in money and power. The campaign was a window into how the gun rights group wields its political muscle. That clout will be on display heading into the 2018 midterm elections as gun control advocates demand swift action following the Florida high school shootings last month. Strickland recalls the NRA's effort to undermine the public trust that he'd spent years building as "painful."
