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The Green Wedge Widens

Tired drug war rhetoric can cost politicians their jobs
 

Being wrong on marijuana just cost a Texas Congressman his job this May, following similar, major upsets in California and Oregon, for example.

On May 29, El Paso councilman and marijuana legalization supporter Beto O’Rourke defeated eight-term Congressman and former Border Patrol agent Silvestre Reyes in the Democratic prima

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Tired drug war rhetoric can cost politicians their jobs

 

Being wrong on marijuana just cost a Texas Congressman his job this May, following similar, major upsets in California and Oregon, for example.

On May 29, El Paso councilman and marijuana legalization supporter Beto O’Rourke defeated eight-term Congressman and former Border Patrol agent Silvestre Reyes in the Democratic primary for Texas’ 16th district. Reyes lost by less than 2,000 votes. Part of Reyes’ defeat hinged on nihilistic drug warrior rhetoric like “Say NO to Drugs. Say NO to Beto.”

The loss mirrors similar losses in the 2012 democratic primary race for Oregon’s Attorney General, and in the 2010 election for California’s Attorney General. In the upcoming general election of 2012, O’Rourke is virtually assured Reyes’ job representing the heavily Democratic district.

And even more politicians across the country—including right here in the Bay Area—are vulnerable for being wrong on ganja.

 

BET ON BETO

The federal government made marijuana use a crime in the 1930s, as part of a new wave of thinking that changed the abuse of drugs from a medical issue to a penal one. The New Deal-era idea drove a geometric explosion in the criminal justice system. Today, the U.S. incarcerates more of its citizens per capita than any country on the planet. An ongoing drug war, fueled by unstoppable U.S. demand has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Mexicans.

Against this grisly backdrop, father and El Paso councilman Beto O’Rourke proposed in 2009 that the city council resolve to support “an open and honest dialogue on ending the [marijuana] prohibition in this country.” The merely symbolic resolution passed 8-0, but El Paso’s mayor vetoed it. The City Council readied an override vote when Rep. Reyes inserted himself into the issue, threatening federal dollars if El Paso didn’t tow the official line in the drug war.

“All we’re asking for is conversation,” O’Rourke stated at the time. The resolution died, but O’ Rourke’s congressional campaign was born.

During a heated primary this year, Rep. Reyes campaigned on “Say No to Drugs, Say No to Beto”. But it was O’Rourke who won May 29 with 50 percent of the vote, versus 44 percent for Reyes. Stephen Gutwillig, deputy executive director for the Drug Policy Alliance, said O’Rourke had some funding from the national drug law reform group.

“Our federal PAC contributed to his campaign,” Gutwillig says via email.

O’Rourke told the press other issues also decided his fate. But the Texan’s support for more reasonable drug laws didn’t hurt him.

 

TOP COP RACES

In parts further West, drug law reformers whacked politically ambitious cops who failed to keep pace with voter sentiment.

On May 25, retired state appeals court judge Ellen Rosenblum defeated federal prosecutor Dwight Holton in Oregon’s heavily Democratic primary race for Attorney General.

Rosenblum—a medical cannabis supporter who said she’d treat the issue as a “low priority”—won with 202,935 votes, compared to 110,891 for Holton—who had called Oregon’s medical marijuana program a “train wreck” and had cracked down on it.

According to reports, about a third of Rosenblum’s $600,000 in campaign finances through May 9 came from the Drug Policy Alliance, and other medical marijuana and marijuana legalization supporters. Winning 64 to 36 percent, Rosenblum told the media many factors—including cannabis—played a role.

In an even closer race likely called by marijuana voters, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris defeated Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley in the California’s 2010 Attorney General’s race.

Cooley led Los Angeles County’s acrimony towards the local cannabis industry—he believes all dispensary sales are illegal.

Harris oversaw the implementation of San Francisco’s model dispensary regulations and believes in protecting patient access.

An estimated one million Californians have or have had a doctor’s recommendation to use cannabis. State support for the drug polls in the high 70s. Medical marijuana groups ran an aggressive “Anyone but Cooley” campaign that clearly cost Cooley some pivotal votes.

Cooley lost by less than 100,000 votes statewide June 8, 2010, with 45.3 percent of the vote, compared to Harris’ 46.1 percent.

 

DOWN THE FIELD

Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich’s disrespectful attitude toward safe access helped cost him a potential job as the metropolis’ next District Attorney.

Trutanich came in third place in the June 5 primary election, behind second-place finisher, Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson—who publicly said dispensary sales are legal. Trutanich lost by about 10,000 votes.

In the battleground of San Diego, District Attorney and dispensary scourge Bonnie Dumanis campaigned hard against the plant. She lost the open mayoral primary June 5 with 13 percent of the vote. Rep. Bob Filner, a longtime Congressional ally of medical marijuana, earned 30 percent of the vote.

This fall, Los Angeles’ Jackson will try to best Chief Deputy DA Jackie Lacey, a Republican who believes dispensary sales are illegal.

In San Diego, Rep. Bob Filner can beat leading opponent and Republican City Councilman Carl DeMaio.

Professional pollster and campaign consultant Ben Tulchin of Tulchin Research said the “green wedge” may not be big enough to decide most races, but it’s a growing one nonetheless.

“There’s definitely momentum on the reform side of the equation,” he says. “In the right place, in the right time, it can definitely have an impact.”

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