In 2010, I was in Helmand Province in Afghanistan and our unit was providing security for the Afghan Election Board. Over the coming weeks, I saw the election board comprised of more than 20 men ride around in an old dump truck while getting shot at and blown up. They and their families were threatened and killed by the Taliban. The Taliban did not want a free and thriving Afghanistan; the Taliban wanted power, money, control over politicians, to terrorize women and to extort those that did not do their bidding. But those men in a dump truck made history by holding the first elections in generations that allowed women to vote.

When I got out of the Marines, I vowed to have that same resolve and serve Americans that do not have a voice.

That is why I must reveal the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners organization for what it is: Colorado’s Taliban.

Anyone who has been around politics in Colorado for at least an election or two knows that RMGO and its leader Dudley Brown have bullied more Republicans than Democrats since its inception as a nonprofit in 1996 that advocates for gun rights.

These are the Chicago-style tactics employed by RMGO and its cronies to punish Republicans who don’t march in lockstep with their agenda.

To be fair, Dudley Brown brags about not being Republican. Actually, he once said in an interview: “If it’s a group of charging RINOs (Republicans in name only), you better shoot the very lead one or you’re never going to stop them all.” By pointing out the evil that is RMGO, I’m not attacking Republicans, quite the opposite.

RMGO has raised millions of dollars for pro-Second Amendment legislation, yet RMGO hasn’t been able to get one bill passed in almost 25 years. Brown instead told talk radio he tried to ruin former Republican state Rep. Cole Wist’s life in the 2018 campaign season because he supported a proposed red-flag law. I was very publicly against that bill, but at no point did I want to lose more Republican seats to the Democrats, as we did in Wist’s formerly competitive House District 37. That strategy is what will turn our state blue for good.

Even former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo came out against RMGO and Brown’s method of forcing “politicians to dance to his tune.”

In May I spoke out on social media. RMGO had launched an effort to recall Rep. Tom Sullivan, the Democrat who had defeated Wist and taken his seat in the Colorado House. Members of the Republican Party’s leadership supported RMGO’s efforts and this felt like a mistake.

Several weeks later I wrote on Twitter: “I still haven’t found 1 person to explain to me how having @dudleywbrown, @RMGunOwners, & @NatlGunRights anywhere near @cologop & Rep. @Sully_720 recall will be a smart strategic choice when the #Democrats will have a male that fits their stereotype of #Republicans. #copolitics.”

After that post, I received three calls from anonymous men who threatened me and my family if I did not back off RMGO and Dudley Brown. No one messes with my family, especially cowards.

Then things got worse. On May 30th at 2:50 p.m. I received a call from the chief of staff for the Colorado House Republicans. Jim Pfaff works directly for House Minority Leader Patrick Neville. He asked when I was going to stop attacking RMGO and Dudley Brown. I responded, “I am not going to stop.”

Pfaff then threatened to smear me with rumors — false rumors that I had heard before from someone close to RMGO trying to influence my decisions — that I had rigged the party chair election and had inappropriate relationships with women in the Republican Party. I told Pfaff that I had already heard those fake rumors and it was old news. Pfaff stated, “I am sure I will find more on you.”

I was shocked that the House GOP chief of staff would defend a proud attacker of Republican candidates while doing opposition research and trying to extort a supporter of Republicans. At the end of the conversation, Jim Pfaff said he was going to post on Twitter that we had agreed to work together and that I should comment or retweet it after. Pfaff was confident that the extortion worked.

Pfaff made his Twitter post but obviously, his call did not work as intended. Instead, I wrote this op-ed.

Countless Coloradans have shared their stories about how RMGO and Dudley Brown smeared and bullied candidates, elected officials, voters and delegates.

Pfaff told me I would become unelectable if I did not back off RMGO and Brown. I and especially my wife would be more than OK with that. But I will not sell my soul to a devil like Jim Pfaff and not stand up to the cancer that is RMGO.

RMGO, Dudley Brown and Jim Pfaff are not a partisan problem; they are a Colorado problem and I will not be silent.

I will not ask Minority Leader Pat Neville to fire Jim Pfaff. It is up to Neville how he runs his House.

Joshua Hosler is the former head of the El Paso County Republican Party.

Editor’s Note: Jim Pfaff told The Denver Post he would let Joshua Hosler’s accusations stand on their own. Dudley Brown said he does bully and threaten candidates who take policy positions he disagrees with but said his group does not extort politicians. “If I, or my organization, had blackmailed someone, please file a suit,” he said. “We have never done anything close to that.”

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