CANDIDATES HUFF AND PUFF OVER POT VOTE

BERKELEY -- To legalize pot or not?

That's the question California voters will face in the fall now that
the ballot measure has qualified for the November election.

The state's political candidates got to face it this past weekend.
And their answers -- more or less -- were no, no, no and no.

Asked whether any of them had ever smoked marijuana, the answers
were, again: No -- except for the occasional "dunno."

"I am not supporting the initiative," said Republican U.S. Senate
candidate Tom Campbell, unable to comment at length because he was
driving at the time. Before hanging up, though, he was able to add:
"I've never smoked marijuana in my life."

GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's spokeswoman, Sarah Pompei,
reiterated her statement this week that Whitman was "absolutely
against legalizing marijuana for any reason. She believes we have
enough challenges in our society without heading down the path of
drug legalization."

Asked whether Whitman had ever smoked it, Pompei said, "I've never
asked her, and I would have no idea."

Jarrod Agen, spokesman for Whitman's GOP opponent, Steve Poizner,
replied in an e-mail: "Steve has said that he's never used drugs."

Still, Poizner had one of the more interesting takes on the
initiative, which would allow licensed retailers to sell up to an
ounce of marijuana, generating as much as $1.4 billion in new taxes,
according to proponents. Agen said that "like electing Jerry Brown,
the idea of legalizing drugs is one more bad idea from a bygone era.
Steve Poizner feels we need an across-the-board tax cut to reignite
our state's economy, not an attempt to smoke our way out of the
budget deficit."

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Jerry Brown's spokesman, Sterling
Clifford, said that because the candidate, as attorney general, is
"the state's top law enforcer, and because he has to write the title
and summary of the ballot initiative, he's not going to discuss the
merits of the initiative until that's done."

Has Brown used marijuana? "I haven't the slightest idea," said
Clifford. "And I'm not sure he can be reached today. He and his wife
were going hiking."

A spokeswoman for Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer said she would ask
her boss about the initiative, but had not responded by press time.
And Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina "opposes the
legalization of marijuana," said spokeswoman Amy Thoma.

Chuck DeVore, the conservative California assemblyman trying to
unseat Boxer, said he had never used marijuana and that he opposed
legalizing it. As he drove through from one tea party rally to
another Saturday in Nevada, DeVore raised a number of potential
problems, including how challenging it would be to come up with
roadside tests to weed out people who were intoxicated behind the wheel.

"What can the police officer do?" DeVore wondered. "Pull out a plate
of brownies, and see if you take one?"