The truth about the NRA's snub of Rand Paul

The National Rifle Association says the only reason Sen. Rand Paul didn’t get an invitation to its annual convention in Nashville this weekend was its inability to accommodate all the 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls.

But Republican insiders know that Paul is persona non grata with the country’s largest Second Amendment advocacy group because of his affiliation with another, more militant gun rights organization, its brash executive director, and his vast direct-mail network focused on hard-core conservative issues.


Nine Republican presidential contenders are set to address the NRA’s annual convention, which is seen as a signature event for the GOP’s base.

While Paul didn’t make the cut, the NRA is not writing him off for good. He maintains an A rating with the group, which acknowledges Paul is “good on Second Amendment issues.” According to the NRA, he might have been offered a speaking slot, too, had he reached out. The explanation from Paul’s camp is that he’s busy with events on the trail following the official launch of his campaign on Tuesday in Kentucky.

But make no mistake: the NRA’s snub of Paul is but the latest flashpoint in a long power struggle between the group and its rival, the National Association for Gun Rights.

It’s also a reminder of the candidate’s deep anti-establishment roots, which some supporters fear could harm his presidential campaign, especially when they are tied to entities that could compromise the message of inclusion that Paul is shaping.

Dudley Brown, a pugnacious Coloradan, started the NAGR 15 years ago as a national companion organization to Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. He brands both organizations as the “no compromises” gun lobby, a less-than-subtle knock on the NRA for being too Washington-focused and less absolutist on Second Amendment issues.

The disdain is mutual — the NRA once dismissed Brown as “the Al Sharpton of the gun movement.”

But Brown’s organizations are about far more than gun rights. They’re closely connected to libertarian direct mail operations rooted in the National Right to Work movement and aimed at advancing a number of conservative causes, including sharp opposition to gay marriage and abortion rights.

Billed as “America’s most effective gun rights organization,” NAGR spends most of its energy attacking Republican lawmakers deemed too soft on Second Amendment issues.via direct mail, robocalls and low-cost television ads. Sometimes, the lawmakers’ main transgression is having failed to pledge complete allegiance by completing the group’s questionnaire.

The group went hard after former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and basked in his surprising primary defeat last year.

Although Brown operates out of a converted bank on Main Street in the small northern Colorado town of Windsor — the steel vault is often filled with stacks of boxes containing financial pledges from supporters around the country — NAGR is registered to an address in Virginia, where Brown’s partner, Mike Rothfeld, is based.

Rothfeld, who oversaw National Right to Work’s direct mail before leaving to start his own firm, Saber Communications, in 1991, has drawn in millions in donations over the years with emails pushing the buttons of passionate liberty movement activists.

Both Rand Paul and his father Ron — the former congressman who made three unsuccessful bids for the White House — have financial and public ties to Brown and Rothfeld.

In 2012, Ron Paul’s presidential campaign raised $40.6 million — and $7.7 million of it went to Rothfeld’s firm.

Rothfeld is now working on Rand Paul’s 2016 effort, and many of his proteges have landed top jobs on the Pauls’ campaigns in recent years: John Tate, after 14 years at National Right to Work, served as political director for Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential bid; David Warrington, NAGR’s chairman, was general counsel on Paul’s 2012 campaign; and Doug Stafford, Rand Paul’s former Senate chief of who now oversees RANDPAC, also came from the organization.

Last year, NAGR members received an email ostensibly from Rand Paul that was written and blasted out by Rothfeld and urged them to send money to Brown’s organization.

Just before last year’s midterm elections, Rand Paul joined Brown on a conference call warning of “Michael Bloomberg’s $50 million war on guns” and then asking for $100 contributions.

Despite warnings about aligning himself with Brown and Rothfeld as he moved toward a presidential campaign, Paul showed up at an NAGR meeting earlier this year wearing a blue jacket emblazoned with the group’s logo.

“It’s been mutually advantageous for both the Pauls and these groups and their ability to raise money online from a growing database of activists,” said Ryan Call, the former Colorado GOP chairman who has tangled with Brown many times.

“They’re all making money for one another by mobilizing this set of strident activists that can advance their agenda; and it’s not just the Second Amendment. Anything that pushes these people’s buttons is something they can co-opt to make money.”