(Promoted by Colorado Pols)
A pair of state representatives introduced a bipartisan bill to address gun safety and mental health. Despite several prominent Republican elected officials publicly supporting the bill, Rep. Cole Wist’s (R-Centennial) decision to sponsor it with Democrat Alec Garnett (D-Denver) prompted immediate outrage from some of his Republican colleagues.
The Denver Post’s Jesse Paul reported on a Monday evening caucus meeting held to address the situation:
“Like any close family we have arguments,” House Minority Leader Patrick Neville, R-Castle Rock, said of a caucus meeting where the legislation was discussed. “But like any close family, we’re still united at the end of the day.”
9News reporter Brandon Rittiman also mentioned the caucus meeting in a tweet, calling it a “family feud”:
A review of social media indeed reveals a close family that remains united. However, it isn’t the metaphorical family of House Republicans, but rather literal relatives from one particular political family -the Nevilles- attacking other Republicans. Their primary target is Patrick Neville’s nominal partner in House leadership, Assistant Minority Leader Cole Wist.
The attacks have been led by Advancing Colorado, a 501(c)4 online entity run by Joe Neville’s consulting firm. On Facebook the group called Wist a “Republican Traitor” who “wants to seize your guns.” It also liked comments calling Wist “treasonous,” a traitor who should be ‘removed by force,’ and a “FK TARD.” Advancing Colorado has posted numerous items over the past two days, many of which include photoshopped images attacking Wist, along with Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler (who is also the Republican candidate for Colorado Attorney General) and Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock.
Joe Neville’s brother, House Minority Leader Patrick Neville commented on one of these posts, stating “I am 100% AGAINST this bill!” Later he told Colorado Politics’ Joey Bunch, “None of us are happy about him supporting the bill, and he’s re-evaluating that. I think he got some advice he regrets, but, hey, we’ll move on.”
On Tuesday he apparently used his leadership authority to take Wist’s seat on the House Judiciary committee where the bill was assigned to be heard this afternoon. It is unknown if Wist’s removal is temporary.
Barb Neville, mother of Patrick and Joe, wife of GOP State Sen. Tim Neville (and manager of the senator’s Facebook page) shared one of Advancing Colorado’s posts. She added her own comment wondering what sort of bribe Wist and other Republicans must have been promised to support the bill.
“First they built the DNA Lab, now this, what’s next? Why are these three prominent republicans sleeping with Colorado Cease Fire and Michael Bloomberg. It makes one wonder what kind of golden nugget has been promised them. Call Cole Wist and URGE him to remove his name from this bill and VOTE NO on it: Cole Wist’s office: 303-866-5510”
Sen. Tim Neville, who represents Littleton, hasn’t attacked Wist publicly, as his wife and sons have, but he made his opinion of the bill known to KDVR TV reporter Joe St. George immediately before the bill’s hearing on Tuesday afternoon. St. George tweeted: “@NevilleforCO tells me he has “’no interest in this bill.’”
Sometime between the Monday press conference and the start of the bill’s hearing, Wist shut down his Facebook account. Rocky Mountain Gun Owners Executive Director Dudley Brown confirmed this in a comment on the RMGO page stating that the reason Wist shut down his Facebook page was because “our heat was too much.”
This post was first published on the Colorado Times Recorder.
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The Nevilles have to be the ABSOLUTE WORST people in Colorado. Bullies, all of them.
Don’t forget “crapheads,” too . . .
Not the worst.
They certainly do have some N-evil-le beliefs about Gun Control.
Who is the worst if not the N-evil-les? They have some N-evil-le beliefs about a lot of things.
Totally awesome use of evil btw.
Well, I can think of a couple — but they’re either locked up in various prisons around the state or they’re Dudley Brown.
The Neville’s are just as massively deadly and dangerous, but instead of pulling the triggers themselves, they just make it easy for others to pull those triggers.
Someone needs to check out the 501c3 status of Joe Neville's Advancing Colorado sham non-profit. Just an extension of RMGO and the idiot Neville's empire
It's a c4, actually, and you can read all about it on the Secretary of State's website here:
https://www.sos.state.co.us/biz/BusinessEntityHistory.do?quitButtonDestination=BusinessEntityDetail&pi1=1&nameTyp=ENT&masterFileId=20141463770&entityId2=20141463770&srchTyp=ENTITY
Seriously??!!! Article 3 ".. shall be operated to promote social welfare … increasing public safety " How does making sure that nut cases have guns increase public safety? How does not supporting law enforcement increase public safety. The Neville's support cop killers and the blood of our law enforcement is on their hands. HOW IS THIS A NON-PROFIT!!!! SOMEONE EXPOSE THEM!!!!
The vehemence of a reaction indicates someone is committing Republican heresy.
Is there any polling to show how deeply unpopular the Neville orthodoxy is in the general public? It has to be pretty lop-sided to trigger
Cox is right. And that is why RMGO exists. Its members believe that the NRA is too squishy on gun ownership rights.
Which is absolutely insane in and of itself.
Think about it this way:
New York City is Michael Bloomberg's gun safety organization. Los Angeles is the NRA. On the planet Earth, the two are fairly far apart.
But when view from the Pluto (the RMGO vantage point), the NYC and Los Angeles are indistinguishable.
Need relief from obnoxious belief? Two words
Tammy Story
She is the Democrat running for the SD16 seat. How big a victory over the Handmaiden zealots would it be if Tammy is our new SD16 senator in 2019.
http://story4co.com/
The same Patrick Neville that voted to keep his party’s expelled sexual-harrasser in the House, is the same Patrick Neville that single-handedly removed his party’s Assistant Minority Leader from his Judiciary Committe assignment???
Perfect. Just perfect.
(. . . and a perfect example of the Republican Party commitment to “due process”.)
I don't understand removing Wist from Judiciary except to scare the rest of his flock into blind obedience to the high command. The bill was going to make it out of committee. (I could see playing musical committee seats if the bill was in the senate and was sent to a committee compromised 2 Dems, 2 RWNJ and 1 RINO. There it would matter.) So the only point is party discipline?
It’s a GOPnutter full Zappatero, with a reverse twist . . .
. . . He doesn’t want anyone to even be able to say that this, or any, gun-safety measure enjoyed some kind of bi-partisan support.