WASHINGTON — A NowThis News video bringing attention to an extreme gun group’s recall campaign against Rep. Tom Sullivan, whose son was killed in the Aurora, Colorado, mass shooting, went viral yesterday.
Led by the radical Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, right-wing Republicans are now attempting to recall Sullivan — subverting the democratic process and causing chaos for the Colorado GOP.
After losing his son in the theater shooting, Sullivan ran for office pledging to pass common-sense gun safety legislation. He handily won his election by eight percentage points and then followed through on his promise, sponsoring and passing Colorado’s new “Red Flag” law, which allows law which allows law enforcement to temporarily confiscate a weapon if a person is deemed a threat to themselves or others.
The NowThis video highlights just a few of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners extreme positions, including criticizing the NRA for compromise, mocking Parkland survivors, and advising gun owners never to volunteer that they are armed to a police offer. Since being published yesterday morning on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, the video has been shared thousands of times and has been viewed by more than 112,000 people on Facebook and almost 19,000 on Twitter.
House Minority Leader Patrick Neville’s political machine joined in the recall effort this week by sharing an ad featuring a fake mugshot of Sullivan and accusing the representative of spending tax dollars on heroin — but not all Republicans support the recall effort, causing chaos for the Colorado GOP.
Former Republican Representative Cole Wist, who lost his seat last year to Sullivan, said he does not support efforts to recall Sullivan over the recently passed red-flag bill. Tyler Sandberg, a Republican strategist, said the recall is designed to enrich the Rocky Mountain Gun Owner’s director, by bringing in donations to the group.
“Congrats to RMGO on ensuring that Tom Sullivan wins re-election in 2020,” Sandberg said on Twitter. “Great work taking a swing seat and making it safe for Democrats.”
Recall supporters have until July 12 to collect 10,035 signatures — but Colorado Democrats, supported by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, are fighting back with a decline-to-sign campaign.
“Tom Sullivan openly campaigned on supporting common-sense gun safety and the district’s voters overwhelmingly supported him,” said Jessica Post, executive director of the DLCC. “Colorado’s extreme gun groups and right-wing Republicans are out of touch with the overwhelming amount of voters — and even responsible gun owners.”
“The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is committed to defending Representative Sullivan from this undemocratic recall effort,” Post continued. “This extreme recall effort is causing chaos in the Republican Party. It will fail and hurt their candidates up and down the ticket from legislative races to the Senate and presidential race.”
