Even in places like Louisiana, voters aren't punishing legislators like Sen. Mary Landrieu who voted for expanded background checks.
If you want more evidence that voting for expanded background checks was the politically smart thing to do? Just head down to gun-crazy Louisiana and see what Republicans are throwing at Sen. Mary Landrieu.
There's the first ad of the cycle, which uses a "duck hunt" spoof to attack her, yet ironically fails to mention guns.
[Ad transcript:] "Mary Landrieu's got bad aim. On healthcare, energy, taxes and jobs, she keeps firing and missing. Back in Washington she praised the Obama bureaucrat that stopped Gulf drilling.
She is way off target on ObamaCare
and constantly misses the mark by demanding higher taxes.
"
Obamacare will be a big one, likely the cornerstone of the GOP 2014 message. But guns? If they can't use it against a Democrat in Louisiana, where could they use it?
There's more: the National Republican Senatorial Committee released an internal poll showing Landrieu leading 45-41 with leaners -- endangered, but nowhere near as bad as might be expected. (Just remember what Sen. Claire McCaskill looked like at this point 2011.)
But the real focus of the polling memo is how unpopular Obamacare is in Louisiana—supposedly 33-62 opposed. You know they asked gun questions in this poll—it's a classic "message testing" operation. But those gun numbers must've come back shitty because they ignored them and focus instead on Obamacare.
Which leads me to my current theory of 2014: Democrats will want to talk about guns, Republicans will want to talk about health care. Funny, huh? Of course, Republicans will be talking about taking away people's health care—an issue they litigated unsuccessfully in 2012. But what else do they have?