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Former Ohio attorney general regrets being 'in the pocket' of the NRA

A former Ohio state attorney general who resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment in office is expressing regret about another issue: his bowing to pressure created by the National Rifle Association’s “finely tuned propaganda operation.”

Marc Dann, also a former Democratic state senator, said the NRA doesn’t act like other special interest groups that exert influence through campaign contributions. Rather, the NRA spends money collected from gun-makers “to misinform and then motivate voters who care about a single issue: the sanctity of the Second Amendment,” he says in an op-ed for Cleveland.com.

“Anyone who thinks Social Security is the third rail of American politics has clearly never talked about firearms with an NRA member,” Dann writes.

Dann says he quickly learned that if he didn’t advocate for the NRA, he wouldn’t be in office to advocate for the issues cared about. “So I made a devil’s bargain with myself: To stay in office, I adopted pro-gun positions that made me uncomfortable,” he wrote. “I was in the pocket of the National Rifle Association.”

Clarifies first paragraph at 12:56 p.m.