Even as the
National Rifle Association (NRA) has been consumed by relentless and increasingly public infighting,
Wayne LaPierre has maintained a firm grip on its leadership.
Now one of the gun group’s major benefactors says he is
preparing to lead an insurgency among wealthy contributors to oust Mr LaPierre as chief executive, along with his senior leadership team.
Such a rebellion would represent a troublesome new threat to Mr LaPierre, as his organisation’s finances and vaunted political machine are being strained amid a host of legal battles, most notably the New York attorney general’s investigation into its tax-exempt status.
David Dell’Aquila, the restive donor, said the NRA’s internal warfare “has become a daily soap opera, and it’s decaying and destroying the NRA from within, and it needs to stop”.
He added, “Even if these allegations regarding Mr LaPierre and his leadership are false, he has become radioactive and must step down.”
Until that happens, Mr Dell’Aquila, a retired technology consultant who has given roughly $100,000 (£80,000) to the NRA in cash and gifts, said he would suspend donations — including his pledge of the bulk of an estate worth several million dollars.
He said he was among a network of wealthy NRA donors who would cumulatively withhold more than $134 million (£106 million) in pledges, much of it earmarked years in advance through estate planning, and would soon give the gun group’s board a list of demands for reform.
The extent of any rebellion is difficult to discern, and the NRA insisted it still had the firm backing of its donor base.
Mr LaPierre has also retained the support of the NRA’s 76-member board, with fewer than a handful of public defections, and it would take a three-fourths vote by the board and one of its committees to oust him.
But there have been signs of wavering grassroots support, including a recent announcement by Greg Kinman, a gun enthusiast with more than 4 million followers on YouTube, that he was cutting ties with the NRA.
In a series of interviews and emails, Mr Dell’Aquila cited numerous concerns.
He was troubled that a former NRA president, David Keene, had been caught up in an investigation over his ties to Maria Butina, the Russian who pleaded guilty to
conspiring to act as a foreign agent.
He was disturbed after
The New York Times reported this year that Tyler Schropp, a senior NRA executive, had an interest in an outside company that had received $18 million (£14 million) from the NRA.
He was also dismayed by a recent
New Yorker story tying the NRA’s former longtime chief financial officer to
allegations of embezzlement at a previous job.
“I don’t know if these stories are true or not true,” he said. “My No. 1 concern, frankly only concern, is that our
Second Amendment rights are preserved and the optics of negativity that are directly harming the NRA institution ceases.”
Mr Dell’Aquila said he had approached high-ranking NRA officials to express his dissatisfaction as recently as April, when the NRA held its annual convention in Indianapolis, but was not satisfied by their responses.
And he said the board had recently been removing critics of LaPierre from key oversight committees.
“I decided the best way to be effective is to start a grassroots effort to demand from the NRA leadership accountability as well as transparency,” he said.
His demands include the resignation of Mr LaPierre and his senior leadership in time to put in a new team for the 2020 elections.
In addition to Mr Cox’s return, he wants Allen West, an NRA board member and former Tea Party congressman opposed to Mr LaPierre, installed as the group’s president.
He would also shrink the board to 30 members from 76; stop paying consulting fees to board members; dismiss the NRA’s accounting firm, RSM; remove past presidents from the board; and cut costs by holding meetings in central locations.
He lamented that an upcoming board meeting was to be held in Alaska: “What are the optics of that?” he said. “It’s negative. It’s self-inflicted.”
He adding that the NRA could find board members who “would do this for free, and it keeps us
clean in the liberal papers”.
Mr Dell’Aquila said he had come to his decision reluctantly and had always been treated graciously by Mr LaPierre and his wife, Susan.
“I’m not pro-Mr LaPierre, and I’m not anti-Mr LaPierre, I’m just simply being objective and trying to save a historic institution from itself,” he said.
“Right or wrong, the buck stops with Mr LaPierre, because this occurred underneath his leadership, and he’s ultimately accountable.”
More at:
https://news.yahoo.com/major-nra-donor-lead-rebellion-110312191.html
