Face The State Staff Report
Colorado’s political activists come in all shapes and sizes, and so do their budgets. Millionaire Democrats Tim Gill and Pat Stryker regularly see their political tactics grace the front pages, and they have become famous for pumping unprecedented cash into state legislative races. Their impact can be measured by the Democrat takeover of the Colorado General Assembly in 2004 and further Republican losses in 2006. But there is another kind of activist in Colorado attempting to turn the political wheels. He operates on a shoestring budget, and his fellow Republicans have called his methodology controversial, uncompromising and on a bad day, damaging to conservative causes.
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Dudley Brown, executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, is a one issue kind of guy. His focus: The Second Amendment. He will accept no compromises. For candidates daring enough to fill out his candidate questionnaire, they’d better score 100 percent if they want the support of Brown and his members. Playing an active role in Republican primaries during the last few election cycles, Brown believes that party affiliation isn’t enough.
Brown says he picks candidates who are “rock stars on conservative issues,” and claims he was instrumental in securing wins in the 2006 Republican primaries of Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, Sen. Mike Kopp, R-Littleton, and Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley. In 2006, Renfroe won a competitive Republican primary against House veteran Dale Hall, who’s experience and name recognition was expected to win him the seat.
Not everyone is giving Brown credit. “It is amazing to me how many people have taken credit for ousting Dale Hall,” said Amy Oliver, host of a morning political talk show on Greeley’s 1310 KFKA radio. “Dale Hall was an arrogant candidate who felt entitled to that seat, and the voters told him no. The losses that Northern Colorado has seen can be credited to the candidates themselves [and] I don’t give one activist that much credit, unless you are a Tim Gill or a Pat Stryker.”
But Brown maintains that his influence and approach make a difference. At the 2000 state Republican Convention he organized crowd members to boo then-Gov. Bill Owens, who had just signed legislation that closed the so-called gun show loophole. After an infuriated Owens left the stage, party insiders questioned Brown’s tactics, saying they were dangerous to party unity in the aftermath of the Columbine High School shootings.
“You have to hang some hides on the barn door in order to keep the coyotes away,” said Brown in justification of his hard-line ideology.
Brown operates on the grassroots level, getting out his message through mail, phone calls and door-to-door campaigns. He also claims to have shown up at his opposition’s fundraisers with the specific purpose of embarrassing a candidate in front of his donors.
Aimee Rathburn, a 2006 candidate for House District 1, became a target of Brown after he decided that she was soft on gun rights. Rathburn was the executive director of the Colorado State Shooting Association, has a record of opposing stricter gun controls, and has won several national awards for her shooting abilities. “Dudley thinks he is going to gain politically by working against people who are with him,” said Rathburn, who called Brown “completely ineffective.”
Rathburn says Brown has a mailing list of pro-gun people, which is his only forum. She said the “average Joe” doesn’t know who he is. For Brown’s part he says he doesn’t care how people respond to him and prides himself on not compromising his beliefs.
“We think the best way to advance gun rights is to force the Republican Party to force its members to be disciplined,” said Brown.
According to Dave Kopel, research director for the Golden-based Independence Institute and a nationally recognized 2nd Amendment expert, most voters don’t demand perfection on gun-related issues.
“I think too much of his efforts go to tearing down the National Riffle Association and tearing down candidates who are 90 percent with us,” saidKopel . “There are times when to move this cause forward you have to work with people who are good 90 or 50 or 30 percent of the time.”
Brown’s desire for perfection is evidenced in a recent interview with the Fort Collins Coloradoan where he said the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to repeal the D.C. ban on handguns is “not a victory for gun owners.”
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