No cannabis petition inside fair

By Leslie Reed
Source: omaha.com

LINCOLN — A Willie Nelson concert would seem like a prime venue to collect signatures to legalize marijuana in Nebraska, because of the country singer's well-known support of marijuana.

But Nebraska State Fair officials have said no to allowing pot petitioning on the fairgrounds in Grand Island.

Instead, members of the Nebraska Cannabis Coalition will attempt to collect signatures on public sidewalks outside the fairgrounds.

Nebraska State Fair Executive Director Joseph McDermott said fair policy treats petition circulators the same as vendors who want to sell products or services.

"That type of activity needs to take place within a leased space — in other words, a booth," he said.

McDermott said the fair was sold out of both indoor and outdoor booth space by the time the group approached the fair earlier this month.

State Sen. Paul Schumacher of Columbus, an attorney and leader of a past initiative effort to legalize video slot machines, said he doubted the legality of barring petition circulators from the fairgrounds.

"The State Fair is the epitome of a public forum," he said. "I don't think a federal court would look with much kindness at limiting public expression at the fair."

Myra Oppy of Lincoln, a spokeswoman for the cannabis group, said her organization had been trying to get a booth for "a couple months," but "they just would not allow us to do it."

The coalition had hoped to set up a tent on the fairgrounds to display hemp products.

"We really wanted to be there," Oppy said. "It's not about getting high, it's about agriculture. It's about our environment. We need to educate people about hemp and its benefits."

She said that only a handful of supporters who live in Grand Island will attempt to collect signatures from along the street during the fair, but that the group will be out in force Sunday, the day of the Willie Nelson concert. Nelson is well-known for his support of marijuana.

"We support him because he supports us," Oppy said.

It's a long-standing requirement that petition circulators rent a booth before they can work at the State Fair, McDermott said.

Kent Bernbeck, a Stanton, Neb., native who has been involved in a number of initiative petition drives, said his group rented booths when it circulated petitions to enact term limits in the 1990s and 2000. He cited a federal court case that gives government the ability to impose reasonable regulations on petition circulators.

Sharon Craichy of Burwell filed an initiative petition earlier this month that would reduce the number of signatures required to put a proposal on the ballot. The retired schoolteacher previously was involved in a petition effort to overturn a state law abolishing elementary-only school districts in Nebraska.

Although organizers of that petition had gathered 78,000 signatures, it was not enough to block the law from taking effect. Craichy said she had no plans to try to circulate her petition at the State Fair. She said she assumed she would need to rent a booth and that it was probably too late to get one for the 2011 fair.

The cannabis coalition has asked State Ombudsman Marshall Lux to review the State Fair's decision. That review had not been completed as of Monday, he said.