Election 2010

PROP. 19 BACKERS HAIL OPEN DIALOGUE

Aaron Kahn sauntered into the Proposition 19 headquarters in Oakland
on Monday afternoon with an appetite for democracy and lunch. His
timing couldn't have been better.

Kahn, 20, was handed a sandwich, a script and a phone, everything he
needed to help get out the vote for the initiative that would make
California the first state to legalize the sale of marijuana. "This
is Aaron with the Yes on 19 campaign," Kahn said. "We're just making
sure you have plans to vote, because it's a really, really close election."

The low chatter of volunteers at clunky computer monitors filled the
bright storefront office as a documentary film crew spoke with a
reporter for an Indian magazine. The initiative has captured
worldwide attention, and reporters churned through the door on Monday.

With the election a day away, the pro-legalization campaign said its
volunteers had made more than 188,500 calls to voters and hoped to
hook 125,000 "Yes on 19" door-hangers on the homes of likely
supporters, including young male Democrats and members of the Green
and Libertarian parties.

"These people have shown in the past that they want to make society a
saner place," said Boomer Shannon, a political activist who was
directing canvassing crews in Arcadia. Shannon said he hoped to leave
at least 15,000 reminders to vote for Proposition 19 dangling from doors.

The initiative would dramatically change California's drug laws. It
would allow adults 21 and older to grow up to 25 square feet of
marijuana and possess up to an ounce for personal use, and allow
cities and counties to set up commercial cultivation and retail
sales, and impose taxes.

The campaign's message was, win or lose, the initiative has
stimulated widespread debate and shown that the nation's ban on
marijuana is destined to fall. "Millions of people will vote for
Proposition 19," said Stephen Gutwillig, the California director of
the Drug Policy Alliance. "We will never go back to a time when
marijuana reform was outside the realm of thinkable thought."

Proponents said the state's drug laws fail to curb use, waste police
resources and create violent black markets, and should be replaced
with a system to control sales and bring in new tax revenue. But
opponents said the initiative was riddled with flaws and would lead
to more teenagers trying pot and more buzzed Californians on the
roads and in the workplace.

The opposition campaign was running largely on autopilot, relying on
radio ads throughout the state. But the consultants who have run the
campaign were still doing numerous interviews with media outlets.

"We're just getting out there that way, the same as before," said
Roger Salazar, a spokesman for the No on 19 committee, which has been
outspent by more than 10 to 1.

The Proposition 19 campaign, fueled by major donations in the last
two weeks, was running ads on television, radio, Facebook and Google,
as well as in the Los Angeles Times.

Salazar suggested the late surge of money was triggered by polls that
show the measure well behind. "The only reason I would put money in
like this at the last second is to try to make sure this thing
doesn't get so embarrassingly defeated," he said. "If this thing is a
blowout, then they probably set their cause back."

But the measure's supporters predict new voters, young voters and
infrequent voters will be lured by the chance to vote for marijuana
legalization. "This is something tangible in their hands that they
can do tomorrow that will have immediate impact," said Dale Sky
Jones, a spokeswoman for the Yes on 19 campaign.

If a noon rally at UC Berkeley was a measure of that excitement, the
campaign is in trouble. A dozen or so demonstrators showed up as
scores of students wandered by, unmoved. "Every single person here
has to make a commitment," begged Kat Murti, Bay Area regional
director for the Yes on 19 campaign. "Everyone here knows someone who
uses cannabis!"

Across Sproul Plaza, Zainab Hossainzadeh, was unimpressed. Sitting at
the Muslim Student Assn. table, the 19-year-old sophomore shook her
head at the sign-waving rally and smiled.

"It is very small," she said. "Especially for Berkeley."

Jonathan Perri, with Students for Sensible Drug Policy, shrugged off
the tiny showing. He said the organization's chapters were still
calling young voters and planned conga lines, sidewalk-chalk markings
and other reminders to encourage college students to vote.

"They're all really excited," he said. "We're going to be working up
until 8 o'clock."