Ad blitz tries to persuade Ohio voters to legalize marijuana

by Liz Essley Whyte October 15, 2015January 28, 2022

In a TV ad, Heather Benton advocates for a controversial Nov. 3 Ohio ballot measure that would legalize marijuana. She moved her family to Colorado for marijuana to alleviate her 4-year-old daughter’s seizures but would like to move back to Ohio. Screenshot/Responsible Ohio

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Heather Benton moved her family to Colorado for marijuana to alleviate her 4-year-old daughter’s seizures.

“We want to move back to Ohio, but we can’t, because her medicine is illegal there,” Benton says in a television ad playing across Ohio this fall. “It is time for marijuana reform. It is time to go home.”

The emotional ad is part of an estimated $3.1 million worth of TV advertisements aired so far that push a November ballot measure to make Ohio the first state in the nation to legalize recreational and medical marijuana at the same time. If approved, Ohio would be the fifth state to legalize recreational use of marijuana, behind Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon.

But appearing on the same ballot is an initiative to invalidate the pro-pot measure. State lawmakers put the counter-measure before voters because they say the legalization effort is an attempt to create a “marijuana monopoly.” If both measures pass, the fight would likely end up before the courts.

2015 ballot measure TV ads

Twenty-eight statewide ballot measures will have gone before voters by the end of 2015, but so far only five of them have been advertised on broadcast TV, according to media tracker Kantar Media/CMAG. Here’s a breakdown of the ballot measure ad spending so far:

Ohio Issue 3, legalize marijuana: $3.1 million: A group called Responsible Ohio has spent more than $3.1 million to air ads advocating for legalization, part of its proposed $20 million campaign to make pot legal. The campaign includes door-to-door canvassing, social media outreach and a bus tour with a marijuana mascot named “Buddie.” Voters will head to the polls Nov. 3.

Michigan Proposal 1, transportation funding: $2 million (decided): Michigan voters rejected Proposition 1 in May, despite advocates spending more than $2 million to air ads supporting it. The measure would have increased the sales and gasoline taxes to pay for more transportation projects. The campaign for the measure was largely funded by the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association, which represents construction companies.

Mississippi Initiative 42, education funding: $711,000: The group known as Better Schools Better Jobs has paid more than $536,000 to air ads supporting the initiative that would allow courts to enforce a portion of state law that mandates Mississippi’s legislature fund public schools at promised levels. A group opposing the initiative, aligned with the state’s Business and Industry Political Education Committee, a nonprofit group that advocates for free-market economics, spent about more than $174,000 on ads saying the measure would leave education funding in the hands of one judge. Voters will decide the measure’s fate Nov. 3.

Wisconsin Question 1, judicial leadership: $267,000 (decided): Two groups warred on the airwaves in Wisconsin this spring over whether the state Supreme Court chief justice should be chosen by a vote of fellow justices instead of by seniority. Liberals viewed the April 7 ballot measure as an attempt to depose the left-leaning chief justice and spent nearly $83,000 on ads fighting the measure. A conservative-aligned group supporting new selection rules spent more than $185,000 on airtime. The measure passed.

Maine Question 1, campaign finance: $264,000: Mainers for Accountable Elections is backing Question 1, which would increase public funding for elections, stiffen penalties for violating campaign finance rules and require groups to list their top three funders on their political TV ads. The group has spent roughly $264,000 to air TV ads for the measure, which will be on the Nov. 3 ballot. Some of its largest donations have come from campaign-finance advocacy groups and Sean Eldridge, a New York-based activist and husband of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes. SHARE THIS FINDING:

Source: Center for Public Integrity analysis of Kantar Media/CMAG data through Oct. 12.

The fate of the legalization campaign in a bellwether, presidential swing state like Ohio may have implications for the 2016 elections.

A win “would catapult the issue further in presidential debates,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that has pushed for legalization but has not endorsed the Ohio measure.

“To have that in a major swing state in American politics, in a state that’s seen as politically conservative, I think that would have a significantly beneficial impact” on further legalization efforts, he said.

Besides the presidential election, at least five more states are expected to vote on legalizing the drug in 2016.

The dueling Ohio initiatives are not the only ballot battles across the nation this year. A total of 28 statewide measures are on ballots in nine states this year. An estimated $6.4 million has been spent to air TV ads about five of them, with the Ohio pot measure accounting for nearly half of the ad spending so far. Ballot topics range from transportation to education.

Another $3.2 million has been spent on ads about local measures, including an estimated $1.7 million from an Airbnb-backed group in San Francisco that is asking voters there to reject proposed rules limiting short-term housing rentals.

The Center for Public Integrity analyzed advertising data through Oct. 12 from media tracker Kantar Media/CMAG, a firm that monitors 211 media markets around the country. The figures do not include ads for radio, the Internet, direct mail or TV ads that air on local cable systems. The estimates do not include the cost of making the ads.

The first pro-marijuana TV messages in Ohio, which started airing Aug. 24, argued that legalization would hurt drug dealers, free up police to deal with other crimes and help sick kids such as Benton’s daughter. A newer ad combats opponents’ rallying cry that the measure would insert a monopoly into the state’s constitution.

The group pushing the measure, Responsible Ohio, is seeking a constitutional amendment that allows only 10 pot farms, which would be controlled by the investors backing its campaign.

“Like most states that legalized marijuana, it initially limits the number of growers with strict regulation,” a woman in one of the latest pro-pot ads says. “That’s a regulated industry without creating a monopoly.”

It appears no ads have run on broadcast TV advocating against legalization, according to a review of Kantar Media/CMAG data.

Opponents of the legalization measure have so far spread their messages online. They see Responsible Ohio’s newer ads as proof that the legalization measure is losing support.

“They’re starting to address the monopoly problem they have,” said Curt Steiner, campaign director for the opposition coalition. “Everything that I’m seeing tells me that they’re going to get beat. Their campaign is operating like a campaign that’s in trouble.”

A spokeswoman for Responsible Ohio said the group feels confident that the measure will pass.

An Ohio TV station earlier this week released a poll conducted by Kent State University researchers showing that 56 percent of Ohioans said they support the marijuana legalization measure.

The key question will be how many of them turn out for this particular marijuana legalization measure on Nov. 3, when the only other items up for a vote besides ballot measures are local elections.