Pubdate: Mon, 06 Oct 2014
Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)
Copyright: 2014 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.pressdemocrat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/348
Author: Don Thompson, Associated Press

MARIJUANA AN ISSUE IN CALIFORNIA A.G. RACE

SACRAMENTO - A Republican fighting to unseat California's incumbent 
attorney general has adopted the unconventional strategy of seeking 
to legalize recreational marijuana as the centerpiece of his uphill campaign.

Democratic Attorney General Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has softened 
her opposition to recreational pot as she seeks a second and final 
term as the state's top law enforcement official.

"The circumstances have changed. Now Colorado and Washington have 
done it," said Harris, who spoke out against California's failed 
Proposition 19 legalization measure when she first ran for statewide 
office in 2010.

California should wait to see how those states deal with such complex 
issues as open-air use that can lead to contact highs among 
bystanders who had no intention of inhaling, Harris said in a 
telephone interview.

Regulating the contents and marketing of marijuana-laced edible 
products is another issue, as evidenced by New York Times columnist 
Maureen Dowd's recent Colorado candy bar overdose. Eating pot can 
produce different effects than smoking it, Harris said, and some 
edibles are attractive to children.

Republican nominee Ron Gold, a former deputy attorney general, said 
California should follow Colorado's lead by making marijuana legal 
and restricting its use to people over 21, imposing a tax and 
regulating production and sales.

Pot use is largely a victimless crime that fills prisons and jails, 
empowers foreign cartels and saps time and money from more important 
law enforcement priorities, Gold said.

"I think it's an issue whose time has come," Gold said.

Harris, a former two-term San Francisco district attorney, has 
focused her crime-fighting efforts on cross-border gangs that she 
said are increasingly engaged in high-tech crimes such as digital 
piracy and computer hacking to target businesses and financial institutions.

Harris drew national attention when she helped negotiate a national 
bank settlement with major mortgage lenders and secured extra funding 
for California. A personal friend of President Barack Obama, she is 
widely viewed as an eventual candidate for governor or U.S. senator 
should she win re-election.

Gold is a self-described political novice and "last man standing" 
among six challengers in the June primary election. He is an attorney 
in Woodland Hills who worked for Attorney General Evelle Younger in 
the 1970s before going into private practice.

He had $3,300 in his campaign account at last report, compared to 
$3.6 million for Harris. Gold loaned his campaign $35,500, though he 
expects enough contributions to mount a challenge, including 
television advertising.

By contrast, Harris' campaign donor list includes prominent names 
from the worlds of tech, business and Hollywood. Among her donors are 
Halle Berry, Michael Douglas, Charlize Theron, Bill Maher and Kate 
Capshaw, billionaire Revlon chairman Ronald Perelman, HBO writer 
Aaron Sorkin and Ivanka Trump, daughter of real estate mogul and 
reality TV star Donald Trump.

"Obviously, my contributions are more in the $25, $50, $100 range," 
Gold said. "We'll see if she's actually going to use her money or 
save it for the governor's race." Marijuana an issue in California A.G. race
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom