A LOOK AT THE POLITICAL LEADERS BEHIND THREE WINNING BALLOT MEASURES

THEY'RE NOT YOUR typical political leaders: a doctor fixated on
marijuana, a new city librarian who balked at her lofty title and a
talk-show host who gave up his job to promote his cause. They weren't
on the ballot, yet Deborah Jacobs, Rob Killian and John Carlson
emerged as three of the biggest winners from Tuesday's election. All
overcame long odds to direct a ballot measure to victory.

Jacobs, the Seattle librarian, came from Corvallis a year ago to
revive and re-energize a failed drive for a new downtown library and
improved neighborhood branches.

Killian, the physician only a year removed from losing an initiative
campaign to legalize medical use of marijuana, refined the measure and
his tactics to score with I-692.

Carlson, closest of the three to being a politician, kept his focus on
amending state affirmative-action laws even after losing his radio
talk show and being outspent by opponents of Initiative 200.

Here, beginning with Jacobs, is a look at the three of them.

COUSIN'S DEATH FROM AIDS STEERED DOCTOR TOWARD MARIJUANA MEASURE

By David Schaefer, Seattle Times staff reporter

Dr. Rob Killian went to Brigham Young University and studied political
science and international relations, "planning to become the first
Mormon senator from Washington state."

But when his cousin contracted HIV from a blood transfusion - she was
the first woman in Utah to die of AIDS, he said - his career headed in
another direction. Now it has brought him full circle back to politics.

The prime mover behind Initiative 692, which will legalize marijuana
for medical uses, Killian is one of the political winners in last
week's general election. Vindicated after a more aggressive initiative
was turned down a year ago, Killian said he plans to remain active in
the movement for a more benign national attitude toward medical marijuana.

"Medicine gave my life meaning," Killian said. "(But) my appetite (for
politics) is whetted. I like the discussion of the issues."

Instead of reveling in an election-night victory, Killian took the
red-eye to Washington, D.C., where he held a Wednesday-morning news
conference about marijuana's electoral victories in the West. Noting
that seven states now have voted to allow marijuana use, the Seattle
doctor said, "I am not going away soon."

He added, however, that he'll confine his political activity to the
issue at hand and has no plans to run for office.

Killian, 38, grew up in Issaquah. He lives in Kent. He's divorced, and
his two sons, 12 and 10, live in Utah but visit him frequently.

Killian graduated from BYU, then earned a medical degree and a
master's in public health from the University of Utah.

He became involved in HIV testing and counseling after his cousin died
in 1984, but it was during his medical residency in Rochester, N.Y.,
that Killian says he first became familiar with marijuana's potential
to relieve suffering.

Inspired in a hospice

He was volunteering in a hospice, where death and dying were a daily
presence, and he became impressed with how doctors handle recurring
tragedy. Reporting for duty one day in the hospice, Killian noticed
that a breast-cancer patient was smoking marijuana.

"I was familiar with the smell," said Killian, who notes that he tried
marijuana twice but that "a little wine with dinner" is his drug of
choice.

Killian moved back to the Northwest in 1996 and became involved in the
politics of the drug after a vote in California that same year.

California OK'd use of medical marijuana and authorized "buying clubs"
for patients to obtain the drug legally. The federal government,
however, has never approved of the clubs. There were a number of
arrests and some of the clubs were shut down.

Killian became incensed that the federal government would hassle
physicians and wrote a letter to the editor of the (Tacoma) Morning
News Tribune. It later was picked up by USA Today and Time, and
Killian was recruited by a local group, the Washington Drug Policy
Foundation, to help with an initiative campaign in this state.

Last year, Killian was the main spokesman for Initiative 685, a
measure that was modeled on an Arizona law. But I-685 would have
legalized a variety of other drugs and was attacked by state
law-enforcement officials as an easy route out of jail for convicted
dealers.

Home-grown proposal

After the defeat, Killian went to the main financial backers - now
known as Americans for Medical Rights - and said he'd like to run a
narrower, home-grown measure.

Killian and his campaign-manager brother, Tim - who runs a marketing
and communications business - wrote I-692 aimed solely at marijuana.
It is similar to - though more restrictive than - measures that passed
Tuesday in Oregon, Alaska and Nevada.

Killian said his next steps will be to work both with law enforcement
and other doctors on how marijuana should be used as medicine.

He and King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng spoke on election night
about helping law enforcement distinguish between legitimate medical
use and abuse of the system. "And doctors need to be taught as well,"
Killian added. "We can't explain how some medicines work and some
don't. It's not a perfect science."

Checked-by: Patrick Henry