June 23, 2014 06:00 PM UTC

Dudley Brown Slimes Up SD-19 GOP Primary Real Good

• 4 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

FOX 31's Eli Stokols reports on another nasty turn the Senate District 19 Republican primary between establishment pick Lang Sias and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners endorsed Laura Waters Woods, to a common tactic employed the nefarious Dudley Brown.

Send in the gays!

In its final get out the vote effort ahead of Tuesday’s Republican primaries, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and other conservative activists backing Laura Woods in state senate district 19 are calling voters to warn them that Woods’ opponent, Lang Sias, is receiving help from a “liberal millionaire homosexual.”

The attack line has been going around for a few weeks, first as part of a direct mail piece from a group called the National Family Coalition (registered to an RMGO ally based in Virginia) that depicted Sias as a monkey alongside text stating that his campaign “is funded by millionaire homosexual activist Tim Gill through Colorado Concern.”

Gill, the software executive whose personal resources helped turn Colorado from red to blue and who’s led the push for LGBT equality through his Gill Foundation, is a board member of Colorado Concern, an organization of more than 100 area CEOs.

While Sias has not received personal financial contributions from Gill, it’s true that Colorado Concern has spent around $50,000 through an independent expenditure committee to help Sias stave off the primary challenge from Woods, believing that the race is critical to Republicans’ chances of winning a senate majority in November.

​The idea that Tim Gill, one of the architects of the Democratic takeover of this state a decade ago, would want to help out a Republican candidate in a tight election year is highly improbable to stay the least. That said, board memberships are what they are. Semantically, this is something Lang Sais' opponents can formulate into a complete sentence that's technically accurate under a certain strained interpretation. This isn't the first time that RMGO or one of Dudley Brown's related family of "pro-gun" organizations has gone after fellow Republicans by tying them to the dreaded gays in a primary, as ex-Sen. Jean White can tell you.

If you find this attack repugnant or meaningless, that's because it's not aimed at you. It's aimed at voters who don't like gay people. Now, there may be a plausible correlation one can make between voters who don't like gay people and Republican primary voters, and that might be honestly frustrating to Republican strategists, who seem convinced that the third time's a charm in 2014 for two-time election loser Lang Sias.

But whether we're talking about Dudley Brown, or bigotry against gays in the Republican rank and file, there is only so much sympathy the Republican establishment can be afforded. These one-time assets have too recently swung full circle to bite them. And all other considerations aside, the only reason SD-19 is up for election this year at all is the recall attempt against Evie Hudak mounted by Laura Woods and the RMGO.

So, as they say, dance with the one who brought you.