2014 has been a particularly nasty election cycle. New sources of seemingly unrestricted advertising have hammered away at candidates in election races from local contests to the Supreme Court. Where does a person who supports marijuana law reform turn to find out who REALLY supports their position?
To The Compassion Chronicles, of course!
Several voting guides have been produced this year- I wrote one myself- and each offers a slight variation on the list of candidates recommended.
Here’s a breakdown of each listing and their top recommendations.
1. The TCC Voter’s Guide
This was originally published in the Michigan and Illinois print editions of The American Cultivator but featured only information, not voting recommendations. This is the original, unabridged version.
The Cultivator has a history of publishing voter’s guides for Michigan and other states. In the Fall 2014 edition I wrote about Michigan’s 2014 candidates for national and top state offices; TAC editor Larry Gabriel authored a piece regarding the Illinois election picture.
The TCC guide includes Republicans and Democrats only; key state races were ranked but Michigan’s Senate and House races were not rated.
The explanation of the methods I used when making recommendations:
“In 2014 the national organization Americans for Safe Access created a scorecard for all the US House Representatives based on their voting record regarding marijuana law reform bills from 2013-14. Some of these recommendations are based on those grades.”
The Guide is not published on the TAC website yet but is reproduced here in its original, unabridged format. The Cultivator does not endorse any single candidate; any endorsements contained in this edition are the opinion of myself and not the Cultivator, its agents or governing organization, MyCompasion.
View the unabridged version, with an analysis of each rated race, HERE.
2. PSI Labs Voter’s Guide
PSI Labs is a virtually unknown entity in Michigan. They are so new their website is not up and running yet. Regardless, they have produced a thorough voting guide that includes candidates for many of the state races and indicates which have a positive or negative voting history on cannabis-related issues.
The PSI guide includes US Taxpayers, Green and Libertarian Party candidates. The guide also opines on certain judicial races of local import.
In the accompanying cover letter PSI Labs principal Ben Rosman cites another ASA-created resource: The Vote Medical Marijuana website.
Rosman’s analysis explained:
“The information was gathered from various sources, including candidate interviews, news reports, articles, voting histories as well as other voting guides…”
The PSI guide does not endorse individual candidates, simply reporting on PSI’s opinion of their voting history instead. Their guide can be viewed HERE.
3. The 420 Slate
Compiled by longtime advocate and- courtesy of the Detroit news media- arguably the state’s most out of the closet medical marijuana patient, Richard Clement. The Guide was published on his blog and is just the latest in an annual listing Clement has created to guide reformers at the polls.
The Slate includes recommendations specific to Wayne County.
In explanation of his selection method, Clement wrote this:
“The following voters guide is based on a candidate’s support of Green Jobs through the use, cultivation and, manufacturing of the male and female cannabis plant.”
The full Slate can be found HERE.
Full recommendation list can be found at the original article at this link here.
