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Snoop Dogg may stump for candidate

Concert would support unaffiliated Dunafon

DENVER – The potential for a star-studded endorsement concert for unaffiliated gubernatorial candidate Mike Dunafon has got the Glendale mayor singing, “Bow-wow-wow yippee-yo-yippee-yay!”

Dunafon’s campaign confirmed it is talking with Snoop Dogg about a potential three-day get-out-the-vote festival over Halloween weekend at Infinity Park in Glendale, an enclave within Denver.

Dunafon has made a splash by making marijuana reform the centerpiece of his campaign, even recording a music video with artist Wylcef Jean that attacks an anti-marijuana youth campaign pushed by Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat in a tight re-election bid.

Snoop added a track to the music video, “The Trap,” which premiered Wednesday on the “Adam Dunn Show,” an online program on iCannabis Radio dedicated to marijuana issues. Dunafon also discussed the festival on the show.

He is challenging Hickenlooper, who is facing an aggressive assault by Republican Bob Beauprez, a former congressman.

It is still unclear what sort of impact Dunafon could have on mainstream candidates’ campaigns. Some Democrats worry that Dunafon will siphon votes from Hickenlooper.

“They understand what’s at stake,” Dunafon said of entertainers like Snoop Dogg. “They understand that if the government keeps going the direction it’s going, that the country is faced with a dangerous situation, and we can peacefully change the direction of our country through music.”

Hickenlooper and Beauprez oppose marijuana legalization, which was approved by 55 percent of Colorado voters in 2012.

In his first interview about the “Yes We Cannabis” festival, Dunafon told The Durango Herald on Tuesday that marijuana prohibition is like Jim Crow laws, suggesting that the disproportionate number of minorities in prison is tantamount to segregation.

“This is a way to energize people who have refused to become part of the political situation,” Dunafon said. “They have allowed governments to act upon them, and they’re tired of it. They have not seen the opportunity to actually empower themselves through the voting process, and that’s what’s going to happen. It’s going to defeat the other candidates.”

pmarcus@durangoherald.com



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