Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jun 2012
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2012 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Kristen Wyatt

COLORADO VOTE ON POT COULD AFFECT OBAMA-ROMNEY RACE

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) =ADVoters in this presidential
battleground state won't just decide whether to
go red or blue this fall but also green=ADas in weed or grass.

Whether to legalize marijuana will be on the
Colorado ballot in November. President Barack
Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt
Romney have identical stances on pot
legalization=ADthey oppose it. And neither is comfortable talking about it.

Yet Obama and Romney find themselves unwittingly
ensnared in the legalization debate=ADand both may
want to take it more seriously if their race in Colorado is close.

With Colorado politically divided and home to a
huge number of independent voters, Obama and
Romney are devoting money and manpower to winning its nine electoral votes.

The November ballot question asking Coloradans to
legalize marijuana cuts two ways for Obama. It
could draw younger voters to the polls, boosting
the president and down-ticket Democrats. It also
highlights the Obama administration's conflicting
signals on states that buck the federal marijuana ban.

Legalization activists are a small but passionate
group, and there are signs that some who turned
out in large numbers here to campaign for Obama
in 2008 have soured on the president, in no small
part because of dismal employment prospects for younger workers.

Obama ran into Colorado's roiling pot controversy
in April, when he spoke at the University of
Colorado in Boulder. He received thunderous
cheers when he walked on stage, but when he
started with an innocuous thanks to the
university chancellor, many students booed.
That's because a week before, the chancellor had
shut down a large pro-marijuana protest on campus.

On a late-night television interview with Jimmy
Fallon that aired the same night, Obama laughed
off a question about marijuana legalization.
"We're not going to be legalizing weed=ADor
what=ADanytime soon," the president said.

Obama has conceded he used marijuana and cocaine
while he was college-age and called their use
"bad decisions." An Obama biography to be
published this month from David Maraniss of The
Washington Post says Obama used pot in high
school too, smoking with basketball buddies in a
group that called themselves the "Choom Gang."

Romney has never smoked pot or used illegal
drugs, a campaign spokeswoman said, and he has
called marijuana a "gateway drug." He recently
stumbled into the marijuana debate when he
visited an oil rig in northeast Colorado and was
visibly taken aback when a Denver TV reporter asked him about marijuana.

"Aren't there issues of significance that you'd
like to talk about?" Romney replied, his smile not hiding his annoyance.

Activists say the candidates are wrong to
overlook the possible importance of marijuana on Colorado ballots.

"The cannabis supporters that I run into
throughout the state are very active, they're
enthused, they want to see change and they're
willing to make it happen. And if I were the
president, I'd really want that enthusiasm," said
Boulder lawyer Lenny Frieling, chairman of the
Colorado chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
 Laws.

Frieling is a Democrat who supports Obama and
donated to his campaign in 2008. But this time,
Frieling says, he's sending his money to local
candidates in Colorado and elsewhere who are
firmly in the pro-legalization camp. He says
he'll still vote for Obama=ADbut he's not giving him more money.

"Obama is just troubling, his switching positions," Frieling said.

That was a reference to a 2009 letter from
Obama's attorney general stating that federal law
enforcement would generally ignore marijuana
users who comply with state pot laws. Yet, in
2012 alone, federal authorities have shut down
more than 40 Colorado marijuana dispensaries,
even though the dispensaries were complying with state and local law.

Another activist who organizes campaigns on local
marijuana ballot questions in Colorado, James
McVaney of Larkspur, says he and like-minded
young activists support Obama but are less
willing to volunteer for his campaign this year,
focusing their energies on the marijuana initiative instead.

"I'm for legalization over Obama," McVaney said.

Colorado's past suggests that in extremely close
contests, Democrats could benefit when pot is on the ballot.

In 2006, voters overwhelmingly rejected pot
legalization. But in the same election, Democrat
Bill Ritter was elected after eight years of
Republican rule in the governor's office, and a
couple of narrow victories for Democrats to the
state Legislature coincided with areas where pot
activists registered dozens of young voters.

Washington and other states may see marijuana
legalization on ballots this fall, but no other
state considered a presidential battleground is likely to.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom