YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

The White House has stepped up its use of taxpayer funds to conduct a
political campaign in Nevada against Ballot Question 7.

A deputy drug czar has been dispatched to the state to attack the
drug reform measure, which would regulate and tax marijuana. White
House drug czar John Walters has already campaigned in Nevada along
with an elaborate entourage.

Walters' deputy Scott Burns spoke Monday at the community center in
Dayton. Protesters at the event objected to his use of tax dollars
for political purposes.

In 2005, when Walters campaigned against a similar measure, Nevada
Secretary of State Dean Heller, whose office polices election
campaigns, tried to find out how much public funding was spent in the
campaign, but the White House refused to disclose the amount. Brian
Sandoval, then Nevada's attorney general, issued an opinion saying
that the state could not force disclosure, but Sandoval was also
critical of a federal government with bottomless funds intervening in
a state-level campaign under the guise of drug education.

"It is unfortunate that a representative of the federal government
substantially intervened in a manner that was clearly a state of
Nevada issue," Sandoval wrote. "The excessive federal intervention
that was exhibited in this instance is particularly disturbing
because it sought to influence the outcome of a Nevada election."