Pubdate: Wed, 05 Nov 2014
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2014 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Niraj Chokshi
Page: A28

MEDICAL MARIJUANA MEASURE, ONE OF HOTTEST BATTLES, FAILS IN FLA.

A ballot measure that would have made Florida the 24th state to allow 
medical marijuana failed Tuesday as voters considered initiatives 
that touched on some of the most important economic and social issues 
facing the country.

Constitutional Amendment 2, which would have granted access to the 
drug to Floridians with "debilitating diseases," needed 60 percent of 
the vote to pass. The measure mustered just 57 percent support with 
nearly all precincts reporting.

The fight in Florida was defined largely by two wealthy men, casino 
billionaire Sheldon Adelson and local personal-injury lawyer John 
Morgan, and helped set the tone of an expensive election season for 
ballot measures.

Adelson contributed $5.5 million of the $6.3 million raised by Drug 
Free Florida, the group working to defeat the measure. Morgan and his 
law firm contributed about half of the $8 million raised by People 
United for Medical Marijuana, which sought to pass it.

Drug Free Florida received fewer than 100 contributions, while People 
United for Medical Marijuana received thousands, virtually all from 
within the state.

The battle over the amendment was among the most active ballot fights 
in the nation, with more than 6,000 television ads airing during the 
campaign, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of 
Kantar Media/CMAG data conducted more than a week ago.

Nationally, more than $145 million funded 150,000 television ads 
about ballot measures, according to the same analysis.

On Tuesday, voters nationally faced the fewest number of state ballot 
measures of any general election since 1988 and the fewest placed on 
the ballot through the citizen-initiative process in 40 years. Yet 
many of the questions before voters involved substantial changes to policy.

In addition to the Florida measure to permit marijuana for medical 
use, two other states, Alaska and Oregon, asked voters to consider 
legalizing the drug for recreational purposes.

Four states considered raising the minimum wage, and a fifth, 
Illinois, polled voters on the issue in a nonbinding referendum.

Arkansas voters passed a measure increasing the minimum wage from 
$6.25 an hour - a dollar below the federal minimum - to $7.50 an hour 
to take effect at the start of next year. Under the measure, the 
hourly minimum wage will rise to $8 in 2016 and $8.50 in 2017.

Support for minimum-wage hikes had been strong going into Tuesday, 
with polls in three states showing such measures likely to win by a 
roughly 2-to-1 margin. The Associated Press initially declared the 
measure in Arkansas successful with fewer than 1 in 20 precincts reporting.

The issue also was on the ballot in South Dakota, where, if approved, 
it would increase the hourly minimum wage to $8.5o next year and tie 
it to inflation after that.

In Nebraska, voters weighed in on a measure that would raise the 
minimum wage to $8 an hour next year and $9 an hour the year after. 
Alaskans considered increasing their hourly minimum wage to $8.75 
next year and to $9.75 in 2016. After that, increases would be tied 
to inflation.

Measures that would restrict gun and abortion rights were on the 
ballot in a handful of states, and voters in Colorado and Oregon were 
asked whether foods with genetically modified ingredients should 
carry labels indicating that fact.

Despite the low number of measures, the political fights surrounding 
them were often intense and expensive.

The more than $18 million spent by an industry-backed group to defeat 
Oregon's genetically-modified-food measure easily surpassed the 
previously reported state record of $12 million. That was set in 
2007, when the cigarette industry succeeded in defeating a tax 
increase on its product.

Vermont earlier this year became the first state to adopt a GMO label 
requirement with a set start date and was sued promptly by the 
grocery industry. Connecticut and Maine passed similar requirements, 
but those will not go into effect until enough neighboring states 
also pass such requirements.

And on Tuesday the fight over a pair of measures in California - one 
requiring doctor drug tests and raising malpractice award limits and 
another requiring state approval of health insurance rate hikes - was 
shaped by more than $130 million in campaign contributions, according 
to analyses by Ballotpedia, an edited online political encyclopedia.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom