Smoking Out The "Weed" Demographic

We are all familiar with the phrase:  “Every vote counts.”  We hear it every election cycle.  This year is no different.  The November presidential election promises to be extremely close, with 2-3 percentage points separating the candidates.  Voter turnout is key.  Both parties will leave no stone unturned to get their message out to the voters…and the voters to the polls.  It is anticipated that a record $3.2 billion dollars will be spent on campaign ads and grassroots efforts to get people to the voting booths.  Everyone remembers the Bush v. Gore fiasco that played out in Florida…and no one wants a repeat.  So the push for voter turnout is expected to be unprecedented. 

Most of the campaign’s focus is on key swing states.  With every electoral vote treated like gold it is imperative that the campaigns win over voters in these tightly contested states.  And no state is more important or more tightly contested than Colorado.  A recent Rasmussen Poll has Obama and Romney tied at 45% of the vote.  With gridlock on the horizon Colorado Democrats may have stumbled on a unique way to swing the state into the President’s win column.

Weed!

Joshua Green of "Bloomberg Businessweek" writes that when Colorado voters go to the polls in November they will be asked to vote on a ballot initiative that legalizes pot in the state.  Not just medical marijuana but good old every day, recreational, Doobie Bothers Mary Jane.  Pot smokers tend to be 18 to 35 years old, students and progressive thinking; the very demographic that came out in droves to sweep Obama into office four years ago. 

The President has been tough on pot smokers ordering his justice department to crack down on illegal drugs use.  But this initiative might turn tokers out in droves.  And it is unlikely that many of them are going to vote for Romney; the guy who ran off some kids smoking pot on his property and then “narced’ them out to the cops. 

Republicans are crying foul.  They see this ballot initiative as a brazen attempt to swing voters.  Perhaps they are right.  But given that pot smokers are not the most organized bunch it seems more likely that the timing is little more a convenient coincidence. J  The real question is whether or not they’ll get off the couch and actually show up.

If this “pot strategy” works on the state level then perhaps Congress would consider implementing it on the federal level as well.  It could prove to be an effective negotiating tool.  Perhaps Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and the President could pass a joint around while negotiating the debt limit and tax reform.  A little mellowing out certainly couldn’t hurt.