Pubdate: Sun, 10 Jun 2012
Source: Austin American-Statesman (TX)
Copyright: 2012 Associated Press
Contact: http://www.statesman.com/default/content/feedback/lettersubmit.html
Website: http://www.statesman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/32

COLORADO POT VOTE MAY AFFECT PRESIDENTIAL RACE

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - Voters in this presidential battleground state 
won't just decide whether to go red or blue this fall but also green 
as 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 both oppose pot legalization, and neither seems 
comfortable talking about it. Yet both may want to take it more 
seriously if their race in Colorado is close.

The ballot question cuts two ways for Obama. It could draw younger 
voters to the polls, boosting Democrats. But it highlights the 
administration's conflicting signals on states that buck the federal 
marijuana ban.

There are signs that some who turned out in large numbers here to 
campaign for Obama in 2008 have soured on him, in part because of 
dismal employment prospects for younger workers.

Romney 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," said Boulder lawyer Lenny Frieling, chairman of the 
Colorado chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom