"Kucinich joins local pro-pot pols at Seattle Hempfest"

Jim Brunner (Seattle Times):

Of course, Kucinich wasn't the only pro-legalization politician to take the Hempfest stage. Also speaking were Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, City Attorney Pete Holmes, City Councilman Nick Licata and state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle.

So did state Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, who might wind up competing with Kucinich in 2012.

Goodman has filed to run for the 1st Congressional District seat being vacated by Jay Inslee, who is running for governor. That's one of two open seats Kucinich is thought to be eyeing in Washington (the state's new 10th District is the other.)

Goodman is an attorney who has long championed marijuana legalization. His reputation is so strong in the pro-legalization community that one fellow Hempfest speaker said Kucinich would be wrong to run against him.

"He (Kucinich) can do anything he wants and this movement will be 100 percent behind him -- except run against Roger Goodman," said Don E. Wirtshafter, a longtime Hempfest activist from Ohio, in an interview. MORE...