MADISON: After I reported the first Harvest Fest had it’s roots as an anti-war rally, I heard from “a reliable source” who was among the organizers of the first of what will be 40 marijuana harvest festivals this weekend. The source, who wishes to go unnamed, shared some memories of the first fest:
Harvest Fest was a smoke-in from the get-go.
We asked the Vietnam Veterans Against the War to get the permit for use of Brittingham Park because we didn’t think that the city would give the Yippies a permit for anything (this was before [Paul] Soglin was elected Mayor) but figured they wouldn’t be able to deny it to the vets.
What we didn’t know was that we were so thoroughly infiltrated that this strategem was reported by the informants and therefore completely known to the police and whoever the police chose to tell.
MADISON: Next Tuesday, President Barack Obama will be coming to Madison and headlining a political rally on the University of Wisconsin campus downtown.
The event will be on Library Mall, which just a few days later, on Saturday Oct. 2 and Sunday, Oct. 3, will be the location of the 40th Annual Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival.
The festival, entering it’s fifth decade, has been a fall fixture in Madison, even outdrawing the university’s football team back when the team was not the powerhouse of recent years.
Harvest Fest, which began as a free speech/anti-war protest in 1971, went on to become the Midwest’s most enduring cannabis festival. But its long existence also speaks to the seeming intractability of marijuana prohibition. Generations of UW students who attended the festival literally have grown gray waiting for the laws to be changed.
MADISON: Analysis of records released by State Sen. Julie Lassa (D-Milladore) regarding SB368/AB554 the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act (JRMMA) reveal overwhelming support for the JRMMA from constituents who wrote or called to express their opinions.
While I have not yet gone sheet by sheet to get a total of contacts in support, considering there were 293 pages and some listed phone logs with multiple contacts that there are conservatively over 200 contacts from ordinary citizens relaying their support. I plan to do a second article that has better numbers and more details. “In Favor” was noted time and time again on phone logs and messages provided by Lassa’s office.
Included among released emails was a message from a Central Wisconsin local elected official terming Sen. Lassa’s actions “GUTLESS” and closing with, “Shame on you.”
The only opposition in the records release came from the Marshfield Clinic, Waushara County Sheriff David Peterson and a Marshfield police officer.
MADISON: Tuesday Sept. 14 is Wisconsin’s Fall 2010 partisan primary election. Unlike the Nov. 2 general election, voters are limited to voting for candidates within a single party. The winners of contested primaries represent their parties on the Nov. 2 ballots. Sometimes it can be politically strategic to vote outside one’s usual party choice.
The following is Part Two of a look at some key primary contests. Because of length I have published it in 2 parts. Part One is here. As I noted in Part One, this information is by no means complete with so the many candidates and races. Reader input on candidates is appreciated.
Moving on down the ballot to the State Legislature, we have returning lawmakers who cosponsored the Jacki Rickert MMJ act or other medical cannabis legislation. Of 11 returning JRMMA State Assembly sponsors and cosponsor up for election this fall, only two are facing primaries. Milwaukee Rep. Josh Zepnick, a reliable supporter of medical cannabis, is facing three challengers. Rep. Barb Toles, another Milwaukee supporter is facing a Democratic opponent in Mike Erdmann.
The contest for mmj bill cosponsor Rep. Spencer Black’s Madison district has a large field, with seven Dems vying to face off against Green Party candidate Ben Manski and Republican Dave Redick in November. Both candidates are confirmed to speak at Harvest Fest in Madison on Sat. Oct. 2.
