Pubdate: Thu, 01 Dec 2005
Source: Oaksterdam News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 Oaksterdam News, redistributed by MAP by permission
Contact: https://oaksterdamnews.com/component/option,com_contact/Itemid,3
Website: https://oaksterdamnews.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4014
Author: Chris Conrad
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

DELLUMS BRINGS 'HOPE' TO OAKLAND MAYORAL RACE

Former National NORML Boardmember Is Frontrunner In June 6 Election

"If Ron Dellums running for mayor gives you hope, then let's get on with 
it," former US Representative Ron Dellums told a bevy of supporters who 
roared their warm appreciation on Oct. 7. In a satisfying bit of symmetry, 
Dellums got his political start by running for office at the municipal 
level, serving on Berkeley City Council from 1967 to 1970.

Dellums, 69, represented Berkeley and Oakland in Congress for 27 years 
before retiring in 1998. He said he is coming out of retirement to run for 
mayor of Oakland to succeed Mayor Jerry Brown. The news media promptly 
declared the local hero to be the new front runner.

The former boardmember of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform 
of Marijuana Laws, had supported various cannabis reforms during his term 
in Congress, and his his successor, popular Rep. Barbara Lee, endorsed 
Oakland's Measure Z which called for regulation and taxation of adult 
cannabis sales here. It was passed with 65 percent of the vote.

Solid Congressional record The mayoral election is June 6. Candidates such 
as Alameda County Treasurer Don White and Oakland School Board members Dan 
Siegel and Greg Hodge said they would withdraw from the race but their 
campaigns were still active in late October. City Council members Ignacio 
De La Fuente and Nancy Nadel vowed to stay in the campaign.

Supporters had circulated a petition for months asking Dellums to run 
because they say he can unite Oakland, a diverse city that is 36 percent 
black, 24 percent white, 22 percent Hispanic and 15 percent Asian. More 
than 8,000 people signed the petition urging him to run.

Dellums decision is seen as beneficial for cannabis-friendly Oaksterdam. 
While he was Congressman, reformers who were active in the 1970s and 1980s, 
such as Gordon Brownell and cannabis historian Michael Aldrich, remember 
Dellums as a friendly backer and a reliable vote for reform. He sat on the 
NORML board from 1977 to 1986, and in 1979 was on it with Hugh Hefner, 
Peter Lawford, Geraldo Rivera, Hunter S. Thompson, Ramsey Clark and Dr. 
Benjamin Spock.

Keith Stroup, NORML's director at the time, said that Dellums "was 
definitely a co-sponsor of our bill to decriminalize marijuana, an effort 
led in the House by Rep. Ed Koch, later the somewhat famous mayor of New York."

For more than two decades, Dellums voted against federal bills that 
encroached on civil rights and expanded Drug War excesses, such as property 
forfeiture against innocent owners; sometimes as the sole voice of protest. 
H.R. 956, creating a $143 million pork barrel for prohibitionist groups, 
was passed by the full House on May 22, 1998 by a 420-1 vote: Dellums.

After Prop 215 passed, the congressman was one of the first five to sign 
Rep. George Brown's (D-CA) letter to his fellow 51 California House members 
urging them to join in a letter asking President Clinton to refrain from 
imposing federal penalties on California physicians who might recommend 
cannabis to patients.

The others were Tom Campbell (R), Nancy Pelosi (D), Pete Stark (D) and 
Henry Waxman (D). He also signed on as a co-sponsor on Barney Frank's 
"States Rights to Medical Marijuana" bill, which has been repeatedly 
introduced into Congress with growing support but has not yet passed.

Ironically, the Oakland federal building that houses the DEA, where 
patients and protesters repeatedly rally for marijuana reform, is named the 
Ronald Dellums Federal Building in honor of his decades of political 
service. Candidate Nadel and others back cannabis reform policies, as well

Dellums fight for safe access is a stark contrast to the role of his 
opponent, Ignacio De La Fuente, the current Oakland City Council President 
who in 2004 took aim at Oaksterdam's dispensaries and tried to have them 
all shut down but one.

Fortunately, his fellow Council member, and also a mayoral candidate, Nancy 
Nadel was able to cobble together a compromise that left only four 
dispensaries standing and helped spur on the Measure Z campaign to regulate 
the city's adult cannabis market.

Dellums is by no means the only cannabis friendly candidate in the mayoral 
race. Nancy Nadel has proved to be a good friend to the medical marijuana 
community. Both she and Dellum's successor, Barbara Lee, endorsed Measure Z 
during the campaign, while De La Fuente kept silent on the initiative that 
passed in a voter landslide. Candidate Dan Siegel also endorsed Measure Z, 
and other candidates for mayor have made it known that they support reform 
but have not made it into a key platform plank or actively courted the 
cannabis constituency.

At a minimum, Dellums plunge into the campaign waters stirs things up and 
adds needed excitement to the mayoral race; but a city campaign will 
typically hinge on local bread and butter issues.

The situation in Oakland is somewhat unusual, in that voters have 
overwhelmingly called for a change of policy while outgoing Mayor Jerry 
Brown, the City Council's "old guard" and entrenched city bureaucrats have 
stonewalled and blocked the will of the voters. As Oaksterdam and the 
Uptown Arts and Entertainment district emerge together, the importance of 
integrating these constituencies will figure prominently in the discussion.

What is clear is that the peripheral issues that led to the passage of 
Measure Z -- unsolved violent crimes, misdirected law enforcement 
resources, low-level street dealing on corners, unemployment, lack of tax 
revenues for vital city services, and unequal treatment of subpopulations 
like cannabis consumers and ethnic minorities -- these issues will all be 
on the voters' minds in June.

A candidate who can tie them together and show how cannabis tolerance can 
help solve these problems will likely find a sympathetic ear from a solid 
majority of voters who are ready for change.

Dellums brings experience, integrity, and high hopes and aspirations to the 
campaign in a city that is poised to break away from the status quo of 
business-as-usual interests and some hope that will in turn usher in a new 
era of progressive, populist leadership. Such a community appears to be 
ready to hear Dellums voice of hope.