SEATTLE -- Charlton Heston, touted as a Moses to lead the National Rifle Association out of a wilderness of bickering and strife, was elected first vice president Monday, sparking a clean sweep for the leadership of the powerful gun lobby.
In the most important race for the NRA's future, executive vice president Wayne R. LaPierre Jr. was re-elected over Donna Bianchi, chairwoman of the NRA board's finance committee, who was drafted at the last minute by LaPierre's critics. The vote was LaPierre 41, Bianchi 31.
The executive vice president is the NRA's top administrator and spokesman.
The 72-year-old Heston, best known for his starring role in "The Ten Commandments" in 1956, ousted incumbent first vice president Neal Knox, who had orchestrated most of the opposition to LaPierre.
It was LaPierre, in turn, who recruited Heston to run -- first for a seat on the NRA board and then against Knox.
Heston said he was proud to serve the NRA, which he described as a leading advocate and defender of the Bill of Rights.
"It (the election) puts, I think, a better team at the head of the organization," he said.
Heston said in his many years as president of the Screen Actors Guild and on many national and international boards, councils and panels, "I never before had the chance to serve usefully on an organization that successfully defended the Bill of Rights."
He also said he did not believe that the position would harm either his ability to land parts in movies or his overall standing in the film industry.
LaPierre said he would share the limelight more with Heston than he did with Knox.
"Believe me, anytime Moses wants to make a statement, you let him," LaPierre said.
The Heston victory countered the NRA's long and rarely broken tradition of two one-year terms for each of the top three officers, with the second vice president moving up to first vice president, and then to president.
"Certainly this is an appropriate time that we not adhere to that tradition," said board member Wayne Ross. "I think the Lord's given us a prophet and we ought not to turn our backs on what the Lord has given."
In the third key race of the day, Kayne Robinson, Des Moines, Iowa, assistant police chief, ousted second vice president Albert C. Ross, a bankruptcy lawyer from Arlington, Texas, in a 36-35 vote. It was a rematch. Ross defeated Robinson last year with Knox's backing.
President Marion P. Hammer of Tallahassee, Fla., was re-elected president without opposition. The votes came in a day-long meeting of the 76-member board following the annual convention of the 2.7 million-member organization last weekend.
"We need a unified team and we heard from our membership Saturday. Our membership has chosen Wayne (LaPierre)," said board member Roy Innis, president of the Congress of Racial Equality and the lone black member of the group.
The 38-34 loss to Heston was a stunning reversal for Knox, 61, a gun-issues writer and former NRA chief lobbyist from Rockville, Md.
Three months ago, he seemed on the verge of replacing LaPierre.
During the NRA's weekend national convention here, Heston made a surprise run for an NRA board seat and won with nearly 74 percent of the vote.
Election of officers followed months of political intrigue and fiscal pressures within the nation's oldest, largest and most powerful gun-rights group.
LaPierre, 47, hired in 1991, declared himself the leader of those favoring a more mainstream position and said Knox would isolate the NRA on the far right.
Knox denied being on the radical right fringe. He and his allies accused LaPierre of mismanagement, overspending and violation of board policies, charges LaPierre denies.
NRA membership has dropped by more than 20 percent, to 2.7 million, in two years, the organization said Monday.
Assets fell from $80 million in 1992 to $41 million, then rebounded to $50 million. The latest audit shows the NRA had a negative net worth of $46.5 million, still an improvement from more than $50 million in the red a year ago. Operations have been in the black for three years.
Heston, a longtime NRA supporter and featured speaker at past conventions, has quarreled with Knox in the past.
On Saturday, running at LaPierre's behest, Heston received 1,038 out of 1,410 convention votes to beat 157 other candidates for a board seat.
The other 75 seats were filled earlier in elections by mail, 27 of them in elections since February in which Knox finished 23rd and Ross 26th out of 32 candidates.
