It strikes me as a "preaching to the choir/fundraising" choice vs a "connect with the undecided/good PR" choice.
I know she just got elected to the board, but Julie Golob would be a much tougher target to attack and has an excellent resume. She's also tougher to paint as "NRA is old white guys who luvs the MURDER111!!!" slander campaign that's currently running against the NRA and gun owners in general. A woman who engages in shooting sports, writes children's books for gun safety, etc vs a guy who has all the baggage of Iran Contra and that end run around the law, a felony conviction that he later got overturned on technicality, lost his handgun license as an "improper person" for lying to congress...
You may be right there. I am not saying he is the best choice, but I do like him and think he is good choice overall. Brownell may be a great guy, but he definitely flew under the "LaPierre radar". Other than his monthly article in American Rifleman, I personally did not hear a lot about him or from him, although he may have been very active, I did not see much from him.
The "connect with the undecided/good PR" choice is an important consideration, and I am not sure Oliver North is the right guy for that. We will have to see...
EDIT: Why do italicized words appear in Times New Roman fonts now??? It happens all the time since the "upgrade" to the board software.