Vice president said Robin Kelly's win in the special election is a warning politicians must act.


WASHINGTON--Vice President Biden said on Wednesday that Robin Kelly's victory in the Democratic primary of the Illinois 2nd District special election underscores that politicians who don't support sensible gun control will pay a price.

On Tuesday, Kelly, a former state senator who made her backing of President Obama's gun control agenda a central part of her campaign, beat out Debbie Halvorson, whose 'A+' rating from the National Rifle Association was consistently attacked by Kelly and other opponents during the campaign.

A super PAC formed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a fierce advocate of tighter gun laws, also poured at least $2.2 million into the campaign. The group endorsed Kelly and ran a series of television ads attacking Halvorson's gun record. In the first congressional race since the Dec. 14 mass shooting at Newtown, Conn., Biden argued that "voters sent a clear and unequivocal signal" that the conversation has shifted.

"The voters sent a message last night, not just to the NRA but to politicians all around the country by electing Robin Kelly," Biden told a meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General. "The message is there will be a moral price and a political price for inaction."

Halvorson served one term in Congress in 2009-2011 and had the highest name recognition among a crowded field vying to replace former representative Jesse Jackson Jr., who resigned from his post in November and pleaded guilty last week to mail fraud and wire fraud charges for misusing $750,000 in campaign funds.

But Halvorson was badly battered for her previous support from the NRA in a race where the nation's gun laws became a top issue. In addition to the outside money from the Bloomberg group, former Obama campaign aides David Axelrod and Ben LaBolt criticized Halvorson's gun record, and Cheryl Whitaker, a close friend of the Obama family, served as chairwoman of the Kelly campaign.

Bloomberg's spending swamped the candidates' own fundraising. As of Feb. 6, Kelly had raised a little more than $303,000, and Halvorson had brought in less than $100,000. The National Rifle Association, meanwhile, was not active in the race.

Throughout the day, Bloomberg and his allies relished the victory.

"This was a rebuke to the NRA, and it was a defeat for their positions and for them as an organization," Bloomberg's pollster, Doug Schoen, told reporters. "I have yet to see an elected official anywhere who does not look at an election like this and sit up and take notice."

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam countered that Bloomberg and his allies were "trying to build a false sense of momentum."

"We spent zero. They spent $2 million on a seat that used to belong to Jesse Jackson Jr. in what could arguably be the bluest district in the bluest state," said Arulanandam, who added the NRA will be active in midterm congressional elections. "At the end of the day, it was not a net gain for them. It wasn't a loss for us. Nothing changed."

Bloomberg, who was in Washington on Wednesday to meet with Biden and lawmakers on Capitol Hill, retorted that the NRA regrets not getting involved in the Illinois race and the contest marked a harbinger of things to come.

"That's not fair; they were involved," Bloomberg told reporters on Wednesday after meeting with Biden at the White House. "The NRA has made it clear that if you vote against them they'll work very hard to keep you from getting elected or re-elected."

Biden's remarks at a meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General came as the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Wednesday on assault weapons, the military-style firearms that the Obama administration has proposed banning as part of its sweeping gun overhaul in the aftermath of the mass school shooting in Connecticut more than two months ago.

Halvorson opposed the assault weapons ban but supported Obama's call for implementing universal background checks on all gun sales.

While the push for an assault weapons ban faces tough headwinds in Congress, a bipartisan group of senators is close to a deal that would extend background checks to most gun sales. But the lawmakers are still in talks over how to manage paperwork for firearm sales between private citizens.

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