March 05, 2013 04:41 PM UTC

Dudley Brown Ain't Above Making Threats

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• by: Colorado Pols

Yesterday's testimony in the Senate Judiciary Committee on a bill restricting magazine capacity turned red hot as Rocky Mountain Gun Owners head Dudley Brown openly threatened to "fund the opponent" of Democratic Sen. Jesse Ulibarri–just one of several moments of drama. Video clip via the Denver Post's feed, also available at leg.state.co.us:

No words minced as you can see. The exchange begins as Sen. Ulibarri asks RMGO's Brown if his organization has donated to any of the members of the committee–to which Republican Sens. Steve King and Kevin Lundberg (almost certainly RMGO donation recipients) immediately object, and chair Lucia Guzman begins to rule Ulibarri out of order. Before she can, however, Ulibarri responds that the question is appropriate, especially given Republicans questioning the alleged "role" of Vice President Joe Biden in the bills up for debate. Dudley Brown's answer, albeit a bit flubbed, puts any doubt about the appropriateness of Ulibarri's question to rest.

One small twist, however: as has been reported, the registered lobbyist for RMGO, Joe Neville, is facing an ethics complaint for allegedly threatening GOP Rep. Cheri Gerou with political reprisal in the form of a "round of mailings" into her district. As Lynn Bartels of the Denver Post reported, it's against lobbying rules to threaten a legislator in any way, including political reprisals. We're told that Brown used to be a registered lobbyist, but that's probably lapsed now that he's gone big time–and has the son of former Sen. Tim Neville working on his behalf. Perhaps Brown had Neville's experience in mind when he realized he wasn't a lobbyist, and engaged in behavior that would have previously seen him tossed out of the capitol.

Judging from the crowd, the rules of decorum had ground down to mere speedbumps by this time anyway.