NRA won’t endorse in Alaska Senate race

The National Rifle Association won’t endorse in Alaska’s hard-fought Senate race.

{mosads}NRA Political Victory Fund head Andrew Arulanandam tells The Associated Press that the group won’t back either Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), who has an A- rating with the organization, or former Alaska Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Sullivan (R), who has an A-q rating (for qualified, because he has no voting record) with the NRA.

The NRA’s support would have been a big boon for either candidate. Begich has been looking to put daylight between himself and national Democrats and has strongly opposed increased gun control measures pushed in the Senate — Arulanandam tells the AP that on gun votes Begich has been with the NRA “100 percent of the time,” and didn’t get a perfect score because of his support of President Obama’s Supreme Court nominees.

If Sullivan had gotten the nod it would have helped him with Alaska’s huge population of hunters and sportsmen.

A recent poll from Public Policy Polling found Sullivan with a narrow lead in the race, though a pair of polls from Democratic firms found Begich up.