Christie wants to use federal law against states that allow recreational marijuana, and he talks about how you don’t get to choose which laws you follow, if people want to use marijuana they should change the federal law.
Will this attitude help him, hurt him or not matter among GOP primary voters?
On the plus (for him side) it will piss off liberals, which will earn him points among the GOP base (I always assumed that is a big part of why the GOP base is pro nuclear energy, they think liberals hate it). And I assume the GOP base is less pro-marijuana as other groups anyway so it either wouldn’t matter or it would help him.
On the negative (for him side) he is saying states do not have the authority to rebel against the federal government.
I wonder if there are any strict legalist junkies-in-waiting who have refrained from ever trying the stuff until such time as they are told it is fully legal.
It is difficult for me to envision Christie carrying enough of the big swing states to win a presidential election with that as one of his policies. Ohio and Florida have a slim majority of voters favoring legalization, maybe even enough to get it done next November. And since it’s a presidential year, the young voters will most likely be out in much higher numbers than for the mid-terms.
I don’t think a promise – and he will be asked about it – to turn Loretta Lynch loose on states containing upwards of 10% of the population (California is a possibility for 2016, too) is going to help the candidate of the minority party.
I can’t see it making any difference. Even his chances of winning the New Jersey primary are slim because he’ll probably be out of the race officially or unofficially by June.
Is this actually an issue enough people care about (either within the GOP or in general)? I would have thought the general public were fairly meh on this.
I don’t think it will help Christie much. Some people are against marijuana legalization, but it doesn’t seem like there are many people passionately against it, like gay marriage or abortion. You can’t fire people up and get them to go vote to protect their children against legal weed, like you can about other issues.
But I don’t know if it will hurt Christie much either. The people who are passionate about marijuana legalization probably weren’t going to vote for Christie anyway. They’d either be Democrats or maybe planning on voting for Rand Paul.
I could see marijuana legalization being a bigger campaign issue in 2020 or 2024. By then it will be legal for some states for several years, and people can see what difference it’s made, and there will be more support for legalization.
It appears we have entered the “I have to say SOMETHING to try to steal a minute of news time from T-Rump!” phase of the campaign.
As a strategy, not sure it’s wise. There aren’t that many people scared of Reefer Madness anymore. What’s his next move, railing against the word “damn” in movies?
If anything I think it will help him. The Republicans that would be most opposed to this are the staunch Libritarians who will probably stick with Paul over Christie anyway. The traditionalists that make up a large portion of the Republican party associate marijuana with dirty hippies, and will see it as a good thing.
I doubt if Christie’s anti-marijuana stance would even help him with the traditionalists. He lost those people when by treating Obama respectfully during the post-Hurricane Sandy cleanup. Plus, he’s considered too moderate on too many other issues and too “East Coast” to get the support of the religious right/culture war crowd who make up the bulk of the hardcore opposition to marijuana legalization/decriminalization. They’ll go with Walker or Santorum first.