Pubdate: Thu, 28 May 2009
Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN)
Copyright: 2009 St. Paul Pioneer Press
Contact:  http://www.twincities.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/379
Author: Jason Hoppin
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project http://mpp.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Marijuana+Policy+Project
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

POT FIGHT ON BALLOT? THAT'S THEIR PLAN

Medical Marijuana Supporters Want Voters to Decide

Medical marijuana supporters, who finally pushed legislation onto the 
governor's desk in Minnesota only to see the bill vetoed, are 
preparing for an even bigger task next year: ensuring the right of 
the sick and dying to smoke marijuana by writing it into the state's 
constitution.

Bypassing Gov. Tim Pawlenty and putting the question straight to 
voters is no easy chore. Supporters of last year's Clean Water, Land 
and Legacy Amendment spent nearly $4 million to get the measure 
passed. Yet, medical marijuana backers say they're willing to foot the bill.

But the key question for the 2010 election might not be whether 
voters approve the measure -- polls show medical marijuana has 
consistent support in Minnesota -- but how the issue affects other 
races, including what is expected to be a hard-fought gubernatorial campaign.

"There's definitely a second layer any time you think about a 
constitutional amendment or a ballot question," said Mike Zipko, a 
political consultant at St. Paul's Goff & Howard. "You could see how 
someone from a progressive point of view (could use the issue) to 
push voter turnout even a couple of points."

The Senate had already approved versions of the bill, which 
originally would have let patients suffering from a list of illnesses 
get a state-issued identification card allowing them to buy marijuana 
at licensed dispensaries or to grow their own.

This session, the bill made it out of the House for the first time by 
a 70-64 vote. It was narrowed dramatically to affect only terminally 
ill patients and won a handful of Republican votes. But several 
Democrats voted against it, and it split St. Paul's all-DFL delegation.

Pawlenty quickly vetoed it. "While I am very sympathetic to those 
dealing with end of life illnesses and accompanying pain, I stand 
with law enforcement in opposition to this legislation," he wrote in 
his veto letter.

The chief sponsors of the bill issued a late-night news release 
promising a constitutional showdown.

"For the governor to veto this legislation, even after the House 
narrowed it so much that thousands of suffering patients would have 
been without protection, is just unbelievably cruel," said Sen. Steve 
Murphy, DFL-Red Wing.

The issue is by no means assured of landing on next year's ballot; 
the Legislature has often been reluctant to put questions directly to 
voters. And once they get there, the campaign, which includes 
assuring a majority cast ballots in the affirmative (a non-vote 
counts as a "no") can be expensive.

"The price of running a statewide campaign has just skyrocketed," 
said Charlie Poster, the former spokesman of Vote YES Minnesota, 
which supported the Legacy Amendment.

But the Marijuana Policy Project, a national group pushing the 
legislation, appears to have the money to launch a serious campaign. 
Since 2005, the group has spent nearly $900,000 lobbying the 
Minnesota Legislature with money raised at events like its recent 
fourth annual Playboy Mansion fundraiser.

"While nobody's drawn up a budget yet, our basic approach is we would 
spend what's needed," said Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the group.

That sets up an interesting scenario. In 2004, a number of state 
constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage were credited with 
helping President George W. Bush win re-election by drawing social 
conservatives to the polls. Could medical marijuana be the left's 
version, drawing voters who aren't typically motivated to vote?

Zipko said it might, pointing to Jesse Ventura's gubernatorial 
victory in 1998. Many voters turned out to support a constitutional 
amendment guaranteeing the right to hunt and fish, added a vote for 
Ventura and left the polls, Zipko said.

"Everybody's looking for any kind of edge to get people to come out 
because these elections are getting closer and closer," Zipko said.

Yet when California voters approved the nation's first statewide 
medical marijuana law in 1996, a presidential election year, fewer 
people turned out than in 1992, the previous presidential election. 
And when Oregon voters followed suit in 1998, a gubernatorial 
election year, voter turnout there was also down over the previous 
governor's race.

Larry Jacobs, the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political 
Studies at the Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs, is among the 
skeptics. He said the Legacy Amendment was passed through a broad 
coalition and posed a question that was fundamental to the Minnesota 
way of life.

"My sense is (medical marijuana doesn't have) the kind of intense 
commitment and breadth of commitment that you see with the Legacy 
Amendment," Jacobs said.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake