Last February during the gun safety legislation debate, we took brief note of an altercation between the lobbyist for the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, Joe Neville, and GOP Rep. Cheri Gerou of Evergreen. As we understand the story, Rep. Gerou became upset about undue pressure from RMGO about the gun safety bills (which Gerou was always opposed to), culminating in a heated exchange in which Gerou told Neville to "go fuck yourself." This incident has been cited as just one of many such incidents that have given RMGO and its director Dudley Brown a dubious reputation even among fellow pro-gun conservatives. The Colorado Statesman's Peter Marcus reported at the time:
Neville [was] accused of telling Gerou that she would be the target of political attack mailers after a conversation he had with her on Feb. 15 about gun control legislation. Gerou approached Neville after she received calls and e-mails from constituents who were concerned that she might support the gun control bills, despite her commitment to vote against the four measures. She believes Neville and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners were spreading “lies.”
Standing outside the House chamber, Gerou told Neville to stop disseminating the misinformation. The conversation turned into a heated exchange, in which Gerou allegedly began waving her finger at Neville, ultimately telling him to “fuck off.”
Neville allegedly replied, “You just earned yourself another round of mailers in your district.”
Now it appears the Gerou-Neville family feud could be headed for a showdown. Last week, a young Hogan-Lovells attorney named Jonathan Keyser filed to run for Gerou's House District 25 seat. Gerou isn't yet termed out of that seat, but the speculation we're hearing is that Keyser will move into Gerou's seat, while Gerou moves on to challenge former Sen. Tim Neville (father of RMGO's lobbyist Joe) in a GOP primary for the chance to run in Senate District 16 against Sen. Jeanne Nicholson. Neville proudly bills himself as the "RMGO-endorsed candidate" in that race.
A clash between Gerou and Neville would be an acid test of the much-ballyhooed power of the RMGO in Republican primaries. It's not like Gerou is an especially moderate Republican, but her failure to "kiss the ring" this year as the RMGO threw their weight around at the Capitol is an affront that Dudley Brown can't just let slide.
Especially not if Gerou is now the one gunning for the RMGO.
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Rep Gerou's advice to Neville will not diminish her support, as her candor demonstrates a fighter … a plus to many out there.
I'd hope Gerou could beat Neville, but I'm afraid she's headed the way of Jean White if she tries this.
What douches Dudley and his crew are.
Says the guy with the obscene photo for an avatar…
What is obscene about eating a corn dog?
Apparently, seeing a man chompin' on a big ol' corn dog makes Libertadus think obscene thoughts….
Oh for fuck's sake, moron, it's a corn dog. And Rick Perry. Which one do you find obscene? I'm hard pressed to choose.
Now I'm really gonna blow your mind, Libertadus:
Now that IS obscene…a picture of michelle bachmann eww!
Just think Lady and the Tramp. It'll be okay.
A Gerou/Nicholson match up would be intrigueing. Womano e womano.
Jeanne has a solid record to run on and has already started her campaign activities. If a campaign victory is based on how hard the candidate works then she is going to be hard to beat.
Gerou would be a tough match-up in this very split district. But Sen. Nicholson always puts a lot of effort in, and she's going to be pounding the pavement while hopefully Gerou and Neville beat on each other (rhetorically, one would hope). If this really happens, you can expect to see this seat in the news a lot for the next year plus.
It's a redrawn district from 2010 and has a slight registered voter advantage to Republicans so it is certainly winnable for Repubs if they don't run another Tim Leonard. It's going to be a very contested race. Gerou only has one more term before she is term limited so it makes sense for this anti-government acolyte to try for the Senate seat and another eight years of being a government employee. Nicholson looks immeniently beatable but people tend to forget that she prevailed in the 2010 Tea Party wave election in a district that was just about as evenly divided. She has the experience of winning a razor thin campaign for SD16 and two campaigns for Gilpin County Commissioner. She is a tough veteran and has gotten some good bills passed that help her constituents in the Wildland Urban Interface. If Gerou wants to match legislative accomplishments, Nicholson can stand toe to toe and remind voters that Democrats will probably retain control of the legislature so her bills will have a better chance of getting passed. It could be great race.
Remember, Gerou wasn't "trying" to starve the children!
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_17188527