March 08, 2014 07:06 AM UTC

RMGO Goes To War Against The GOP

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• by: IndyNinja

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

SUNDAY POLS UPDATE: The Denver Post's Lynn Bartels:

The three RMGO-backed Senate candidates in Jefferson County are Tony Sanchez, Laura Woods and Tim Neville. Sanchez faces Nicolais in the GOP primary for the Senate seat now held by Democrat Andy Kerr, while Woods faces Sias in the GOP primary for the Senate seat now held by Democrat Rachel Zenzinger. Neville so far has no primary opponent, and is expected to face Democrat Jeanne Nicholson in November.

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners claims in its Facebook post that the party is allowing “campaign operatives” for “anti-gun” candidates Sias and Nicolais to work in the Jeffco office and have “exclusive access to key data” that could give them an advantage in the June 24 primary. Brown also claimed in a fundraising letter that the party is “giving preferential treatment to the candidates who refused to fill out our survey.”

Nicolais, who is a member of the NRA, pointed out that he didn’t bother to fill out the survey for the same reason he didn’t fill out the AFL-CIO survey: He wasn’t going to get the endorsement. He said he received the survey after the gun group already endorsed Sanchez.

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Not that it's really anything new, but Dudley Brown of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners is again causing trouble. 

In an email sent to RMGO members and supports this morning, Brown stated that:

RMGO-PAC has received word from multiple sources that the Jefferson County Republican Party is now turning away volunteers that openly support conservatives in the area

If that sounds strange to you, it should. But he goes on to explain that he doesn't mean ALL conservatives…

The party is asking volunteers, at the door, who they are supporting in contested State Senate primaries, and if they answer "Laura Woods", "Tony Sanchez" and "Tim Neville" (RMGO-PAC endorsed candidates), the volunteers are asked to leave.

That's a pretty bold accusation. And if true, could lead to some interesting GOP intra-party drama come County Assembly, which is on March 22. 

Another interesting thing about this is that the reason volunteers would be showing up right now is because the Jefferson GOP has asked them to. From their website:

We need your help with Post-Caucus review and data entry March 5 – March 12. With 257 precincts to process, there is a lot of work to be done.

Even if you can spare just a few hours or work all day, we can use you. General Office and phone answering help is needed too.

So, the party is asking for volunteers to help with data related to assembly delegates and denying access to that data to anyone affiliated with certain candidates while allowing access to others. And according to Brown, they aren't being coy about it:

In fact, RMGO-PAC's Political Director, Joe Neville, just got off the phone with Party Chair Bill Tucker, who confirmed this report. 

Here's another interesting reveal. It seems that the other candidates mentioned in the email, Mario Nicolais and Lang Sias, failed to receive the RMGO's endorsement because they refused to fill out the candidate survey, which is enough, apparently, for them to become "anti-gun" in the eyes of Brown and his organization.

The party is allowing campaign operatives for anti-gun State Senate candidates Mario Nicolais and Lang Sias to not only work in this office, but have exclusive access to key data that could help give them an unfair advantage in the upcoming primary election. 

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The party is giving preferential treatment to the candidates who refused to fill out our survey. 

So if the vote of no confidence in GOP State Chair Ryan Call weren't enough for you, this little soap opera should help to keep you entertained.