For 26 years, Dianne Feinstein has represented the Golden State as a senator, but now she faces a challenging re-election campaign against a crowded field of candidates \u2014 including many who are eager to bring up her anti-cannabis history.<\/p>\n
Often called California\u2019s \u201cIron Lady<\/a>\u201d and the oldest U.S. Senator<\/a>, Dianne Feinstein rose from a position of utter obscurity as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to the position of San Francisco\u2019s first female mayor, following the untimely deaths<\/a> of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. In 1992, she was elected to the U.S. Senate, where she has remained comfortably ever since. Now, Feinstein is facing a tough bid for re-election, with 31 challengers certified by the Secretary of State<\/a> to run in the June 5 primary. Two will advance to the November general election, regardless of party affiliation. So, out of this crowded field, does anyone have a chance to dethrone California\u2019s Iron Lady?<\/p>\n On Mar. 25, SurveyUSA conducted a poll<\/a> of likely California primary voters and found that only 31 percent said they would vote for Feinstein in the primary, though she had the highest percentage of anyone in the field. Interestingly, the next most likely voted-for candidate on the poll was Stephen Schrader, a Republican, who missed the deadline to officially file with the state and will not appear on the June ballot. After Schrader, Kevin De Le\u00f3n, a Democratic State Senator, and Patrick Little, a Trump-supporting Republican, are the two most likely challengers, both of whom the poll found had 5 percent of likely votes.<\/p>\n In terms of campaign finances, Feinstein has the most funding, with $13 million dollars, according to the government transparency website Open Secrets<\/a>, based upon the most recent campaign filings from the end of 2017.<\/p>\n The next best-funded candidate is De Le\u00f3n, who has over $430,000 dollars raised. The only other two candidates to raise or spend over six figures are progressive Democratic challengers Alison Hartson and Pat Harris. Hartson has raised over $200,000 dollars and Harris has raised over $300,000 dollars.<\/p>\n There are no major GOP candidates in the race, which could explain why 29 percent of voters said they were \u201cundecided\u201d in the SurveyUSA poll. The lack of strong GOP candidates will likely mean a face-off between Senator Feinstein and another Democrat in the November election.<\/p>\n As one might imagine from the oldest currently serving senator, Feinstein\u2019s views do not always fit with those of a majority of Californians, and cannabis is a great example of that. While 94 percent of Americans<\/a> support medical cannabis, and 57 percent of California voters passed Prop. 64<\/a> to legalize adult-use cannabis, Feinstein remains strongly opposed to adult-use<\/a> and favors medical cannabis only in very limited contexts.<\/p>\n Last year, Feinstein told Rolling Stone<\/a>, when it comes to legalizing cannabis, \u201cI\u2019m not there. I think there\u2019s a lot about marijuana we don\u2019t know\u2026 I think marijuana has potential dangers to it.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2010, she came out<\/a> strongly against Prop. 19, which would have legalized adult-use cannabis in her home state.<\/p>\n Given Feinstein\u2019s uncertainty about legalization, some of her challengers have been particularly vocal about cannabis. Out of the 31 challengers, three have stood out on cannabis policy: Harris, De Le\u00f3n and Hartson.<\/p>\n Harris has perhaps been the most vocal about legal cannabis, as he even attended the International Cannabis Business Conference (ICBC) in San Francisco earlier this year. Harris has worked for decades as a criminal defense attorney and said at the conference that he saw \u201cpeople\u2019s lives ruined over small amounts of pot and saw the racial disparities in how it was enforced.\u201d After witnessing the destruction of the war on drugs firsthand, Harris \u201cknew cannabis had to be legalized.\u201d<\/p>\n De Le\u00f3n has also come out publically for cannabis. On Jan. 23, his office released a statement<\/a> urging Congress to pass Representative Barbara Lee\u2019s HR 4779, the REFER Act, which would prevent federal funding from being used to go after cannabis businesses or individuals in compliance with state cannabis laws.<\/p>\n That statement is perhaps the first piece of cannabis policy that De Le\u00f3n has ever authored, and it is merely a letter of support. The LA Times reports<\/a> that during the Prop. 64 campaign to legalize cannabis in California, De Le\u00f3n was \u201cnot there yet\u201d when it came to legalization. Dale Gieringer, the California director for National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML), commented<\/a> that while \u201ccannabis is not his issue,\u201d De Le\u00f3n\u2019s \u201crecord is certainly better than Dianne Feinstein\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Hartson, who is running as a member of the \u201cJustice Democrats<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a group founded by Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks, cannabis legalization isn\u2019t publicly listed on her priorities, but she did tell Cannabis Now over email that she feels that cannabis legalization is \u201ccritical for our freedom, health, and economic security.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe war on marijuana costs us billions of dollars, encourages crime and criminalizes otherwise upstanding citizens, targeting our most vulnerable communities and preventing people with illnesses from having affordable access to necessary medicine,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n For Hartson, the fight for cannabis legalization isn\u2019t just about economics and poll numbers, it is personal, as she has \u201cpeople in my family and circle of friends who rely on marijuana for medicinal purposes.\u201d She also called attention to the issue of \u201cmonopolies on the marijuana industry\u201d being a threat to \u201cworking class families.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mercury News reports<\/a> that Hartson has done incredibly well in terms of small donors, receiving \u201cmore money in small-dollar donations than Feinstein and De Le\u00f3n combined.\u201d Despite that strong performance with average voters, Hartson has only raised half of De Le\u00f3n\u2019s total, which is still a pittance compared to Feinstein\u2019s $13 million dollars.<\/p>\n So, what are Feinstein\u2019s chances of winning her senate re-eleciton campaign? Given her many advantages as an incumbent<\/a> and her vast financial resources, it currently seems unlikely that any of Feinstein\u2019s challengers will be able to unseat her.<\/p>\n The key word there is currently<\/em>, as a great deal can change between now and the November general election, and with only 31 percent of likely voters supporting her, Senator Feinstein\u2019s seat is by no means safe.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> do you vote based on a candidate\u2019s cannabis policy?<\/p>\n The post Candidates Vie to Unseat Dianne Feinstein, CA\u2019s Anti-Pot Senator<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
For 26 years, Dianne Feinstein has represented the Golden State as a senator, but now she faces a challenging re-election campaign against a crowded field of candidates \u2014 including many who are eager to bring up her anti-cannabis history. Often called California\u2019s \u201cIron Lady\u201d and the oldest U.S. Senator, DianneContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[148,50,3888,81,3889,3890,2900,3891],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25176,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25175\/revisions\/25176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Early Leaders<\/h4>\n
Feinstein\u2019s Cannabis Record<\/h4>\n
The Challengers<\/h4>\n
The Fall of Feinstein?<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Candidates Vie to Unseat Dianne Feinstein, CA\u2019s Anti-Pot Senator<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"