S.F. Pot Club Owner Starts Campaign

PERON'S GUBERNATORIAL RUN BEGINS IN SANTA CRUZ

With his neat white hair, wire- rim glasses and casually loosened tie,
Dennis Peron looks everything like a ``candidate,'' and nothing like the
biggest marijuana booster in California.

But as he kicked off his campaign for governor of California yesterday in a
Santa Cruz community center, the irrepressible Peron peppered his political
rhetoric with jabs at the major parties, and made admissions probably never
made before by a Republican candidate.

``I want to make this clear right here, I did sell marijuana to kids,''
said Peron, who made the sales through his San Francisco cannabis club.
``They were 16 and 17, they had cancer, and to the shame of America, they
had AIDS.''

Peron went on to argue that real Republicans want the government to butt
out of issues like sexual choices and marijuana use.

``Republicans stand for individual responsibility, and small government is
good government,'' Peron said. ``The fundamentalist right . . . these guys
are fake Republicans, using the (party) banner to oppress us with their
moral agenda.

``I want to regain the soul of the Republican Party, the soul of America,''
Peron said, with a grin. ``And you know what else? It drives them crazy
that I'm a Republican.''

Peron has a long way to go if he wants to make a serious bid for the GOP
nomination. Attorney General Dan Lungren, a staunch opponent of any
marijuana use, is the odds-on favorite to win the party primary in June.

Peron said he chose to kick off his statewide campaign in Santa Cruz
because of the city's solid support for medical marijuana and its close
ties to San Francisco. Santa Cruz approved its own ordinance legalizing
medical marijuana in 1992, and well over 70 percent of local voters
approved the statewide medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 215, in
1996.

Santa Cruz is solidly Democratic, with fewer than one in six registered
voters a Republican -- and not a one of them was to be seen at yesterday's
campaign event.

But Peron urged voters of all persuasions to take advantage of California's
new open primary law to put him on the November ballot as the Republican
candidate. Peron volunteers are also working to gather the 10,000
signatures needed to waive the state's $6,000 election filing fee. Peron
said he hopes to get elected without having to raise money.

``I don't really want your money,'' he said. ``We're not going to win the
election by putting me on TV for 15 seconds. We're going to win (with
events) just like this.''

The crowd of about 100 that filled a meeting room at the Louden Nelson
Community Center applauded wildly as Peron lambasted the federal war on
drugs, intrusive government and political parties. If elected, Peron vowed
to open the border with Mexico and house all of the homeless, perhaps in
large communal ``long houses.''

``I feel compelled to run for office not just because of marijuana, but
because of what they're doing to this country, using their police powers to
intimidate the people who want social change,'' Peron said.

)1998 San Francisco Chronicle