Could Obama's Pot Crackdown Cost Him Colorado?
That's the question posed by this Salon article. Excerpt:
In Colorado alone, 40 dispensaries — all in compliance with state and local law — have already been shut down this year.
The surprising about-face has inspired former supporters in Colorado to try to legalize the drug outright. They managed to get a proposition to that effect on the ballot this November, and […] there are…warning signs that many of these same voters won't pull the lever for Obama in a crucial swing state.
"The element that nobody's really talking about is what I call the Gary Johnson effect," says Denver Democratic political consultant Rick Ridder.
Some testimony from spurned lovers:
"I volunteered for his campaign, primarily because he said he was going to respect state marijuana laws," says Josh Kappel, a Denver attorney who works at Sensible Colorado, a marijuana reform group at the forefront of the legalization effort. […]
Wanda James, a Democratic fundraiser who bundled $100,000 for Obama's 2008 campaign while serving on his national finance committee, runs an edible marijuana business in the state. She is so outraged at the White House that she "won't raise a dime" for his reelection.
"There's a number of major donors that have felt that way — people who've given over a million dollars," she told me. […]
Johnson registered at 7 percent support in a recent Public Policy Polling survey of the state.
I have been encouraging progressives to torture Democrats over the drug war for a while now.
Link via Gary Johnson's Twitter feed.