The I-502 campaign picked up a somewhat unexpected endorsement today. Republican Senate candidate Michael Baumgartner:
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Michael Baumgartner on Wednesday endorsed Initiative 502 to legalize retail sales of pot, calling the war on the illicit drug a matter of national security.
The freshman state senator, who is challenging Democrat Maria Cantwell, worked several years ago for a State Department program in Afghanistan to help farmers grow wheat instead of opium poppies.
He said his experience in Helmand province — and watching the U.S.-funded efforts to eradicate Mexican drug cartels — convinced him criminalizing marijuana for adults only enriches traffickers and takes law-enforcement efforts from pursuing organized crime.
As soon as I saw someone with Baumgartner’s resume getting into this race as a Republican I was curious where he’d fall on this issue. Now we know. He appears to have a better grasp than his challenger, Maria Cantwell, who put out a statement against I-502:
Asked for Cantwell’s position, spokesman Kelly Steele emailed this: “While I remain a strong supporter of our state’s medicinal marijuana laws, I don’t believe it should be legalized for recreational purposes based on concerns expressed by law enforcement and the current drafting of the initiative. Whatever the result, I will honor the will of the voters’ decision in November.”
This issue should be a no-brainer for Democrats to support. Nearly 60% of Washington voters support some form of legalization, and even higher numbers of liberals and Democrats do. The severe racial, civic, economic, and environmental impacts of marijuana prohibition are well understood by large numbers of left-leaning voters. Yet both Cantwell and Inslee continue to alienate a big part of their base by remaining on the far right fringe on this issue. For Cantwell, her lead is probably insurmountable anyway, but Baumgartner is showing how a smart Republican might be able to win a closer race in this very blue state.
I would never have expected this announcement, same with the two candidates for King County Sheriff.
this is why i still refuse to vote for Donkeys…simply a foolish remark by the madame jr. senator.
don’t worry, elephants are real idiots and i would never think about voting for this challanger either.
I wonder when are we ever going to have a debate on the destabilising influence the war on drugs is having in Mexico, especially in border cities like Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, and Tiajuana? When there are times when there are few honest cops, honest police chiefs don’t last too long on the job(sometimes being killed the day they take the job), it is hard to stem the flow. I have been wondering, since it has been illegal all these years(since the thirties), is Marijuana not covered under NAFTA? If not, perhaps a domestic legal marijuana industry could be protected by a high tariff. We got to cut the demand for the illegal product. One of the reasons the cartels make their money, is the fact that the stuff is illegal, and it being illegal, costs more.
That Cantwell isn’t willing to put federal funding in jeopardy while tilting at marijuana windmills sounds like a good thing to me.
We all know that federal laws have supremacy of over state ones. If I-502 passes the state wont implement it because of federal supremacy and because we’d run the risk of losing all sorts of federal funding.
I-502 is a waste of time.
My vote just changed.
@4,
Yes, the federal laws may trump state laws, but let’s take a look at the past. Back in the day of alcohol prohibition, many states recognized the futility of trying to eliminate something that was used by a wide swath of the population. Those states quietly repealed their own laws against Prohibition. It was this recognition by the states that Prohibition as futile that helped end Prohibition nationally.
I-502 may get trumped by federal law against cannabis, but it’s part of the process necessary to get the federal government to wake up and pay attention to the obvious: cannabis is here to stay and is enjoyed by many in every state in the nation. Pretending that a naturally occurring weed can be kept illegal when so many choose to enjoy it is a fairly nutty policy. I-502 is not a waste of time because its passage is our state telling the federal government that the federal laws are wrong and need to be changed. I urge all to vote for I-502.
While I won’t be voting for Baumgartner (I’ll be voting for a Libertarian or writing-in someone other than Cantwell or Baumgarner), I applaud Baumgartner’s recognition that the federal laws against cannabis are wrong and need to be repealed. Washington State is merely starting the process of ending this federally-enforced insanity.
If either McKenna or Inslee were smart…they’d come out for I-502 too, but no..the WoD is much too important..
What kind of world has it become when it’s the REPUBLICAN candidate for US Senator supporting legalization?
Why as a pot smoker should I continue to vote Democrat?
@7,
What I never could get was that guy Kerlikowski (sorry if the spelling’s wrong). I thought he had a realistic attitude towards cannabis, but, once he got that high-roller job with the DEA, he started talking like the worst of the worst when it comes to recognizing the idiocy of the laws agaisnt cannabis. Let’s face it – there are a lot of DEA-types who’d like to have aspirin illegal so they could bust heads and seize property and generally be hoodlums employed by the feds!
@4
As part of the recent ObamaCare ruling, the SC decided that the feds can’t bribe states to implement a policy, so I don’t foresee that happening. Not to mention that they’ve had 16 years to do that with respect to medical marijuana (which is just as illegal) and they don’t.
My vote just changed. I e-mailed the Baumgartner campaign to let them know that this issue switched my vote.
@9
Good point.
@4: This is a common point of view by the opponents, however I have read a lot of reasoning for why the feds would most likely stay out of the State’s passing of the initiative. With the elections coming up and other far more pressing matters at hand, many feel the feds would likely not want to waste the time, money, and risk the civil unrest that would occur if they stepped in on something a majority of Washingtonians passionately agree with. Can’t remember where I saw it but I recall one writer theorizing that the feds do not recognize this as their battle.
It is not a waste of time because it is a huge step in the direction that most of the country wants to head in terms of marijuana reform. Those like me who enjoy cannabis and don’t feel it should be illegal want I-502 to pass for peace of mind, and those who support I-502 but don’t use cannabis and don’t plan to appreciate the other benefits the bill outlines. If anything this is a tremendous statement of the people to the Government that we do not see cannabis as the same threat it appeared as many years ago and are sick of it being so harshly criminalized and expensive to control.
@7
So your world revolves around pot smoking.
Lol…wow, just wow.
@13
So your world revolves around making excuses for and supporting the WoD..
Lol..wow, just wow.
@14
teh fayle…
I dont give a fuck about the WoD.
would like a 2nd chance, toker?
@15
You don’t give a fuck about the WoD?
Well, that’s rather obvious…
You just keep on supporting jailing those who smoke pot like a good little sucker…
@16
aww, uptown must be high or something.
I dont care if pot is legal or not – and somehow that makes me “supporting jailing…blah blah blah”
you want to be a derelict loser, go smoke all the weed you want, I dont care.
pot smoking sheeple are funny to laugh at anyway.