Senate backers of expanded gun background checks scramble for votes

By David Lawder and John Whitesides

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan proposal to expand background checks for gun buyers appeared on Tuesday to be short of the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate, as supporters scrambled to save the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's effort to reduce gun violence.

But Senate leaders scheduled a Wednesday vote for the expanded background checks plan forged by Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, along with eight other amendments ranging from banning assault weapons to expanding permission to carry concealed firearms.

The proposals need 60 votes to overcome procedural hurdles erected by Republican opponents in the 100-seat Senate, where Democrats control 55 seats.

With several Democrats from conservative, gun-friendly states possibly voting against the measure, supporters have been hunting for more Republican support, which has proven elusive.

"It's going to be close," a senior Senate Democratic aide said of the vote scheduled for around 4 p.m. (2000 GMT).

Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, who opposes the proposal, told reporters that its supporters "don't have the votes to pass it."

He intends to offer a substitute amendment on Wednesday and argued that the Manchin-Toomey plan would not have stopped the December massacre of 20 school children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut, or other mass shootings.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid rejected the idea that the background checks amendment had lost momentum since it was announced last week and was headed to defeat.

"Am I saying it's all over with, done, we've got the votes? No. But we certainly feel we have the wind at our back," Reid told reporters.

The Manchin-Toomey amendment to extend criminal background checks to online and gun-show sales has been seen as Obama's best hope for meaningful gun-control legislation in response to the Newtown shootings.

Opinion polls show more than 80 percent of Americans favor expanded background checks, but the amendment is opposed by the National Rifle Association gun lobby and most Republicans in the Democrat-led Senate. Even if it clears the Senate, it would face a rough ride in the Republican-led House of Representatives.

The NRA has warned lawmakers it will include their vote in the ratings it compiles on them and sends to its 4 million members. Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a gun-control group backed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has also said it will rate members of Congress based on their votes.

Former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, severely wounded in a 2011 mass shooting in Arizona, urged Senate Democrats to pass the measure during an appearance at their weekly luncheon.

Reid said Manchin also made a "moving, tearful" presentation at the luncheon.

"We are optimistic that this can pass," Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, told reporters after the meeting. "It's going to take a little work. That's why Gabby and I are here."

RURAL STATE COMPROMISE?

Administration officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, have helped Manchin and Toomey lobby senators.

Relatives of Newtown victims also visited Washington last week and held emotional meetings with lawmakers in which they urged them to support expanded background checks and other measures.

Among Republicans, only Toomey, Susan Collins of Maine and Mark Kirk of Illinois have committed to support the Senate proposal. John McCain of Arizona, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, said on Sunday he was "favorably disposed" to it.

Several Democratic senators from states where hunting and guns are popular - including Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Mark Begich of Alaska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana - remain uncommitted.

Democrats have explored changes to the background checks deal to allow exemptions in rural areas that do not have federally licensed gun dealers. The compromise would be aimed at winning senators from rural states such as Heitkamp and Begich.

"It's something we're looking at," Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York told reporters. "I never let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

But Republican opponents were increasingly confident they would win any showdown vote on the background checks.

"I don't think Toomey-Manchin is going to fly. I don't know where (they are) going to get the votes," Republican Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska told reporters, adding that the entire gun bill was in "serious trouble."

'NEW OBLIGATIONS' ON GUN OWNERS?

Whatever is eventually agreed to appears likely to fall far short of what Obama sought immediately after the Newtown shootings. The bill also includes tighter restrictions on gun trafficking and more funding for school security.

Amendments to add restrictions such as a ban on the sale of rapid-firing "assault" weapons like the one used in Newtown and limits on the capacity of ammunition magazines appear to have little chance for approval.

Opponents of the Manchin-Toomey plan and some other elements of the legislation say the proposals are an example of government overreach that would infringe on the constitutional right to bear arms.

"Manchin-Toomey would impose new obligations on law-abiding gun owners," Grassley said.

Manchin and Toomey, both conservatives and strong proponents of gun rights, have argued that their proposal would simply make it more difficult for criminals and the mentally ill to buy guns.

Their amendment includes sweeteners for gun-rights supporters, including a provision that would make licensed interstate sales easier and ban the creation of a gun registry, one of the frequent fears cited by groups such as the NRA.

(Editing by David Lindsey, David Brunnstrom and Paul Simao)

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Ready for Hillary: New Backers, High-Profile Endorsements Lend Legitimacy to Pro-Clinton Super PAC

In a world of proliferating super PACs run by well-known Washington power players, this one might have been easily dismissed.

Its founders -- a 61-year-old former college professor and a 27-year-old former campaign aide -- seemed an unlikely pair to stir up grassroots support for 2016's most-talked-about potential presidential candidate.

But since its formation earlier this year and its official launch at the beginning of the month, the Ready for Hillary PAC has already had an impressive track record. The group, which calls itself "the nation's premier organization urging former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to run for president in 2016 and laying the groundwork of support for her potential candidacy," has developed more than a whiff of legitimacy.

According to organizers, financial contributions -- more than 1,000 of them -- have been pouring in. Activists have gathered for boisterous pro-Hillary events outside two of the former secretary of state's recent speaking appearances (in Washington, D.C., and New York). And Ready for Hillary has built a slick website and a fast-growing social media presence.

Ready for Hillary has also amped up its credibility in a big way over the past two weeks with a series of high-profile endorsements from three prominent Clinton backers: Democratic strategist James Carville, long-time Clinton confidant Harold Ickes and former California congresswoman Ellen Tauscher.

"She needs to know -- and it's our goal to demonstrate to her and to the country -- that there's an army ready to help her candidacy," the group's communications director Seth Bringman said in an interview with ABC News.

What began as a quirky venture run by Bringman and a handful of Clinton fanatics, is suddenly looking a lot more serious. Organizers are assembling something of a shadow campaign-in-waiting, complete with an email list 150,000 supporters strong -- and growing. And although the super PAC would be legally barred from coordinating with Clinton's campaign if she decides to run, the group's success in cultivating a grassroots network, raising money and sparking genuine passion for her candidacy (a political ingredient that Barack Obama arguably had in greater supply in 2008) could send a powerful signal to potential challengers from both parties and to Clinton herself, who remains the group's most important target audience.

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Bringman said that the recent support from both Carville and Ickes was a "huge" boost for the organization.

"I'm not going to waste my time writing you about how great Hillary is or how formidable she'd be -- you know it all already," Carville wrote in a recent message sent to the group's email network. "But it isn't worth squat to have the fastest car at the racetrack if there ain't any gas in the tank -- and that's why the work that the Ready for Hillary PAC is doing is absolutely critical. We need to convert the hunger that's out there for Hillary's candidacy into a real grassroots organization."

Carville's note stressed one of the key reasons the small band of committed Hillary enthusiasts decided to form the group in the first place: Clinton had to cease her political organizing activities during her four years at the State Department.

"We owe it to Hillary to start putting the building blocks of her campaign together now," wrote Carville, who advised her 2008 presidential bid and served as a top strategist to Bill Clinton. "The modern political campaign demands it."

A few days later, Ickes, a Clinton stalwart and expert fundraiser, chimed in on behalf of the upstart group, telling the Sunday Times of London that he had signed on as an adviser.

And last week, Ready for Hillary circulated a news release trumpeting the addition of Tauscher, who served for three years as undersecretary of state in the Clinton administration, as a supporter and strategic adviser to the group.

"I have been up close to her -- as close as you can get," Tauscher said in an interview with ABC News. "She is second to none. I will support her whatever she does, but selfishly, I hope she runs."

Tauscher, who represented a Northern California congressional district for a dozen years before leaving for the State Department, has already put her money where her mouth is. She wrote the group a $2,500 check this month.

Her donation was its first clue it had a potential big-name surrogate in the midst. Tauscher said that within hours of contributing to the Ready for Hillary website, a staff member called to ask if she was, in fact, "the Ellen Tauscher."

"I thought it was pretty funny," she said.

Bringman said the support of Tauscher and many others shows "there's no shortage of folks who want to help Hillary, want her to run for president and want to see her succeed."

As proof of that, he blasted out an email message to supporters over the weekend, noting that Ready for Hillary blew past the 100,000 fan mark on Facebook. He wrote that the group "has been expanding its social media base at a rate of one new person every 14 seconds," helping it amass more than 55,000 Twitter followers too.

Despite Ready for Hillary's thousands of newfound friends, the group currently employs just three paid staffers: Bringman, who works out of his home in Columbus, Ohio, and worked on Clinton's 2008 bid; Matt Felan, the national finance director who is based in Michigan and served as deputy national finance director for Clinton's campaign five years ago; and Nickie Titus, the group's digital director who was director of digital media on Tim Kaine's successful 2012 Virginia Senate campaign.

The group's co-founders, Allida Black and Adam Parkhomenko, have been volunteering their time. Black was a professor at George Washington University for 20 years and is now an independent historian. In an office on the second floor of her brick colonial home in Arlington, Va., Black surrounds herself with books and photos of Clinton and other political leaders. Among her treasured possessions is a pair of orange high-top sneakers signed by Clinton that Black said she wore while traveling the country as a super-volunteer for Hillary during the 2008 campaign.

Black, who hatched the idea for Ready for Hillary with Parkhomenko shortly after the 2012 election said that the goal was simple: to "build the most effective operation that we can to buy Hillary some time."

"We are not a fly-by-night group," Black said. "We know what we're doing."

She and Bringman said that neither of them has received pushback from members of the Clinton's inner circle. "We've gotten nothing but encouragement," Bringman noted, from people close to the former first lady. "I don't think there's anyone who would tell Hillary supporters not to express their support for her."

And organizers say they this is only the beginning. Parkhomenko plans to become the group's executive director next month. The finance operation will grow to include a team of regional fundraisers across the country. The group plans to acquire office space in the Washington, D.C., area sometime in the next few months. And the super PAC will file its first fundraising report this summer.

But supporters and donors such as Tauscher, who was effusive about Ready for Hillary's efforts when reached at her home in California last week, said the PAC's organic feel was what attracted her to it in the first place.

"That's what I loved about it," she said. "There's nothing better than to have a real grassroots movement made up of grassroots people that are much more in tune with people than those inside the Washington bubble."

Other Clintonites, however, continue to view the effort with a dose of skepticism. One former Clinton 2008 campaign staffer said Ready for Hillary appeared to be a good vehicle for the latent enthusiasm that exists for another Clinton White House bid but predicted that it would ultimately have little impact on her political calculus.

But Black, Parkhomenko, Bringman and their small band of Clinton warriors simply can't wait for Hillary to make up her mind.

"She's a leader of my lifetime," Black said, "and I could not sit this out in good conscience."

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