March 23, 2013 01:00 PM UTC

Dudley Bown says "No rule" will stop Rocky Mountain Gun Owners from threatening lawmakers during its lobbying efforts

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• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

On Corky Kyle's "In the Lobby" show March 4, the Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, Dudley Brown, said that he could care less about a regulation prohibiting lobbyists from threatening state lawmakers with political retribution for casting a vote.

Brown said "no rule" will stop his gun organization from threatening to throw lawmakers out of office if they don't vote his way.

Dudley Brown: I can tell you this much, though the claim here might be that you can’t threaten political retribution for a vote, and our actual lobbyist is up for – in front of ethics charges for doing just that, that’s exactly what our organization is doing. We’re saying, “You vote wrong, and you’re in a marginal district, we will come out and we will defeat you in the next election, if at all humanly possible." And I make no qualms about that. No rule in the Capitol is going to stop us from saying that.

Corky Kyle: Thanks, Dudley.

DB: Thank you!

CK: [Off camera] Bee-yoooo-tiful, dude!

DB: [maniacal laughter] –get tossed out as a lobbyist.

CK: Yeah, I know! Oh, it wouldn't be the first time somebody said something to me.

DB: Yeah, that would– So, I won't even say that. So sorry to say that. You can’t say that? Really?! [inaudible] says that.

[in studio] CK: All right… [chuckling, to producer] you can turn the rest of that off…

The Legislature's Rule 36 prohibits lobbyists from influencing legislators “by means of deceit or by threat of … political reprisal…with intent thereby to alter or affect said legislator's …vote." 

Attempt to influence any legislator or elected or appointed state official or state employee or legislative employee by means of deceit or by threat of violence or economic or political reprisal against any person or property, with intent thereby to alter or affect said legislator's, elected or appointed state official's, state employee's, or legislative employee's decision, vote, opinion, or action concerning any matter which is to be considered or performed by him or her or the agency or body of which he or she is a member [BigMedia emphasis]

Kyle chose not to press Brown on his brazen disregard for lobbying rules, which is a shame, because it would have made a perfect topic for Kyle's "In the Lobby" show, which focuses on the State Legislature, from the perspective of a lobbyist!

Kyle should invite Brown and others back to discuss: Should an outfit (Rocky Mountain Gun Owners) that promises not to abide by lobbying rules be allowed to lobby at all?

Already, as Brown noted in the interview, a Rocky Mountain Gun Owners employee is under investigation for breaking lobbying rules. And Brown has been sued in federal court recently for his alleged role in a political attack ad.

Brown is apparently playing by the rules in his court fight against gun-safety legislation, but, as with his lobbying efforts, he's taking an extreme tack.

Brown has already threatened a lawsuit, which he's said even the "NRA isn't going to support," to stop Colorado's new law requiring background checks on private gun sales. Brown has said his suit would stop all background checks for gun sales, noy just private sales.