How Colorado delegates and weed are impacting the Democratic Party platform
PHILADELPHIA Democrats plan to vote Monday on their national platform and rules for this weeks Democratic National Convention, and the contributions of Colorado officials are expected to make an impact in two key areas: marijuana use and how the party selects its presidential nominee.
The pot provision was championed by Dennis Obduskey of Park County, a member of the platform committee, and it calls on Democrats nationally to support a policy that would remove marijuana as a Schedule 1 controlled substance and set a reasoned pathway for future legalization.
Obduskey said the measure won by the thinnest of margins 81 to 80 at an earlier meeting in Orlando and its already part of the platform. He said the effort was spurred by what he described as excessive rates of incarceration for marijuana violations.
We have so many people in jail because of marijuana use, Obduskey said. We need to get this as a national policy and stop screwing around with it.
Its not for me. Its for everyone else, he added. I havent used marijuana since college. And that was in Boulder in the 1970s. Imagine that.
The other contribution from Colorado grew from a longstanding fight between supporters of Hillary Clinton and primary rival Bernie Sanders specifically on the role of so-called superdelegates, who get to vote on the partys presidential nominee but are not required to follow the electoral results of the states they represent.
The issue was a big one for Colorado this year, as Democrats in the state selected 41 Sanders delegates to 25 for Clinton. But Colorados 12 superdelegates, which include Gov. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, overwhelmingly backed Clinton and their support, along with other superdelegates nationally, was instrumental in the former U.S. Secretary of State edging out Sanders to become the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Sanders supporters want that arrangement changed a movement that gained steam this week following the resignation of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz as DNC chair in response to the publication of leaked emails that showed her staff working to undercut Sanders during the presidential primary.
The superdelegate fight has the potential to erupt on the convention floor this week, though two Colorado officials have worked to ease tensions.
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