POT COULD TILT RACES IN OREGON: SURVEY

While Democrats are watching turnout levels in California to gauge the
ability of marijuana ballot initiatives to turn out young voters,
organizers to the north point to a second case study, which concludes
that such a referendum would dramatically bolster interest in voting.

Backers of an Oregon measure to regulate the buying and selling of
medical marijuana commissioned a poll to determine the effect of the
question on young, progressive voters inclined to sit out the
election. Pollsters quizzed 400 Oregonians who described themselves as
Democrats or independents and rated their interest in the midterm
election between one and five on a scale to ten. Half of the voters
were given information about Measure 74 and the other half were told
about the race for governor, currently a dead heat between Democrat
John Kitzhaber and Republican Chris Dudley.

Voters told about the pot initiative were more than twice as likely to
increase their interest voting -- which, in Oregon, is done by mail.

President Obama will visit Oregon on Wednesday to try to rally young
voters. At least two Oregon House races remain competitive, with
freshman Democrat Kurt Schrader and long-serving progressive Peter
DeFazio fending off challengers.

Unlikely voters who were told about the pot initiative increased their
interest in vote by an average of 3.5 points on the ten-point scale.
By a margin of 62 to 21, they overwhelmingly support the measure and
at a rate of 50 to 23, they prefer the Democratic candidate for
governor. Both candidates, however, have spoken against the pot measure.

Medical marijuana is currently legal in Oregon, but voters rejected a
2004 measure that would have expanded the program to legalize
dispensaries. The Yes on 74 campaign's war chest is filled with little
more than seeds and stems, but the organization hopes that Democrats
and organized labor will recognize the political wisdom of touting
Measure 74 and offer the campaign some in-kind assistance.

Motivating young people to engage in politics, especially in an
off-year, midterm election, is no simple matter. But the Oregon survey
reflects what political operatives have found in California, Colorado
and Washington state.

Young, inspired voters were a key constituency that elected Obama in
2008, and their turnout in 2012 -- when a number of swing states are
considering marijuana initiatives -- could determine control of the
White House and Congress.

Voters fired up by pot are already working to drive California turnout
for November.

Activists from Just Say Now have made nearly 6,000 calls in the last
week, organizers say, using an online tool to turn out voters
supportive of Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana. Just Say
Now is coordinating with the Women's Marijuana Movement, which is also
phone-banking on behalf of Prop 19, targeting women, who tend to vote
Democratic.

Hundreds of mothers have signed a letter endorsing Prop 19, arguing
controlling and taxing marijuana usage will make their communities
safer for children. A small group of moms released the letter Tuesday
and discussed their support for the measure.

"What we're doing with the policies that are in place now is hampering
the kind of conversations we need to be able to have with our
children," said Hanna Dershowitz, a lawyer and mother of two. "A
reasonable conversation," she said, can only take place "in the
context of controlled regulated marijuana."

Gretchen Burns-Bergman, a mother of two and Executive Director of
Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing, said she's all too
familiar with the problems of pot prohibition and wonders how many
other lives have been devastated by the policy.

"I know the damage of marijuana prohibition firsthand," Burns-Bergman
said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. "My son was arrested
in 1990 for marijuana possession, which began a decade-long saga, a
tremendous emotional saga for our family, a wasting of potential, and
a tremendous tax burden to the state to incarcerate him."

Burns-Bergman said after his first arrest at age 20, her son was in an
out of prison for 11 years, learning to inject heroin while behind
bars. "Taking somebody who is a nonviolent pot smoker and introducing
him to this kind of a system is terribly damaging," she said.