Fight Back Colorado Announces Next Target

Fight Back Colorado, the super PAC created to unseat legislators who killed a bipartisan civil unions bill in a dramatic legislative showdown last May, today announced its third target: Durango Republican J. Paul Brown.

Brown spoke out against civil unions and publicly prayed to God that the legislation would fail. At a rally at the state capitol on the National Day of Prayer on May 3, The Colorado Statesman reported that Brown said, "Let us pray … that [God] will especially be with the House Judiciary Committee today as they make the decision on civil unions, that they would use your words, that they would do as you want them to do, not as the world wants us to do."

Later that day, the legislation passed the Republican-controlled committee, thanks to the vote of Loveland Republican B.J. Nikkel, who had voted against the legislation in 2011.

According to the mailer Fight Back Colorado plans to send to Representative Brown's southwestern Colorado district, Brown used a La Plata County Commission to create "a brand new $20,000 government program that only benefitted himself, his father, and five other people."The mailer goes on to assert that Durango residents "can't trust J. Paul Brown with your tax dollars in Denver."

Brown is the third legislator targeted by the super PAC, which is funded in part by Denver-based philanthropist and gay-rights advocate Tim Gill. The group's other targets include Aurora's Rep. Cindy Acree and Jefferson County's Rep. Robert Ramirez. All the legislators targeted are Republicans.