Mano Amiga Action participants rejoice at decisive triumph in Nov 2022

Could cannabis – long derided by critics as a drug that induces laziness – in fact be the largest catalyst of electoral politics in Caldwell and Hays counties the past few years?

Evidence suggests the current liberal-leaning composition of Hays County’s Commissioners Court – which swung from Republican to Democratic control in 2023 – hinged on the wild success of a ballot initiative to decriminalize pot in San Marcos.

That preceding November, voters in the college town took to the polls in droves to end criminal penalties for possessing less than 4 ounces of marijuana. 

Despite pleas to the public from the San Marcos Police Officers Association to reject the proposal, 82% of the electorate voted in favor of what the Examiner then dubbed “the Reeferendum.”

Mano Amiga Action, a specific-purpose committee that led ballot-initiative efforts locally, reported signing up over 1,000 people eager to vote on the measure: unregistered individuals and, more often, Texas State University students updating addresses from back home to where they now attend school (and, perhaps, smoke weed).

Another key player in the Reeferendum was Ground Game Texas, an organization based in Austin helping coordinate marijuana ballot initiatives statewide.

The proposition proved popular in San Marcos: 8.2% more people voted on the pot-decriminalization item than in the mayoral race, with 1,468 voters casting a ballot on pot but skipping the top municipal contest between a pair of pro-cop moderates.

A chief beneficiary of the marijuana-fueled vote boost was Ruben Becerra, Hays County Judge – and by extension, the Democratic Party, which took control of the court through Becerra’s rolling-paper-thin re-election victory. With more than 88,000 votes cast for the highest elected office in Hays County, Becerra prevailed by just 926.

“Prop A probably drove up Democratic turnout by a net 1,000+ votes, if not substantially more,” wrote Hays County Republican analyst Griffin Spell on Facebook a few weeks later, acknowledging Hays Dems’ “best performance since 2006” in that “they won every election they attempted to win.”

Will Lockhart’s Reeferendum Help Flip a Commissioner Seat

in November?

Can the tide of enthusiasm to end arrests and citations for possessing small quantities of ganja trigger a similar result in Caldwell County – helping sweep Democrat Taylor Burge into the Precinct 1 seat?

If she does – and Margarito Zapata prevails in his Precinct 3 race – Republicans’ 4-1 dominance would suddenly shatter, giving Democrats control of the commissioners court with a 3-2 makeup.

According to county data, over 80% of Pct 1 voters are Lockhart residents – those eligible to vote on the Reeferendum.

Elle Cross is lead organizer with MARI, formally Mano Amiga Responsible Implementation, another specific-purpose committee (and a different legal entity from similarly named nonprofits). She reports the measure has found rapid success; in less than 3 months, MARI has gathered 620 signatures in favor of placing the item on the Nov. 2024 ballot, when the Pct 1 race is simultaneously underway.

MARI says only 400 signatures are required to legally compel City officials to add the marijuana measure in the fall general election. A bevy of local businesses have volunteered to host a clipboard where registered voters can add their name to the tally.

The Examiner vs. Texas State University System: Our Lawsuit over Cannabis-Discipline Policy

In March 2020, the Examiner first filed public information requests with Texas State University asking for data on the race of individuals expelled and suspended in recent years for marijuana infractions.

The Texas State University System had a drug policy on the books of “two strikes and you’re out,” that made permanent expulsion automatic.

Officials at the Ivory Tower in San Marcos refused our record request, instead citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which aims to restrict disclosure of students’ personal information.

The Examiner then clarified on June 17 that we didn’t want students’ personal information; the University was welcome to redact every single item on the discipline reports – except race of the student, type of drug involved, disciplinary action taken and academic year when action was taken. Nonetheless, the University refused to comply.

So, that October 2022, represented by the Texas Fair Defense Project (TFDP), we sued Texas State University, demanding they comply with the Texas Public Information Act. “There’s no world in which FERPA protects the release of that information to the public,” TFDP attorney Nathan Fennell said upon filing our lawsuit.

The Examiner explained at our press conference, “Texas State’s refusal to be transparent seems unusually suspicious, spurring us to wonder if there might be a deeply disturbing racial trend afoot: namely whether students of color have been disproportionately – or even exclusively – suspended and expelled in recent years for pot. The University can easily extinguish those suspicions by just complying with state law.”

The following month, on Nov. 17 – with zero fanfare or the slightest mention – the Texas State University System Board of Regents altered a yearslong policy of two-strikes-and-you’re-expelled for pot possession to make it less draconian, affecting 87,000 students at 13 campuses statewide..

This spring, the Examiner went to court to present a request for summary judgment from District Judge Sherri Tibbe, who declined to rule in our favor (or for the University, who also moved for summary judgment). Accordingly, unless something changes, a jury trial will be set for the near future.

San Marcos Lawsuit: Did Outgoing Hays Co. D.A. Mail a Letter to Himself at

Paxton’s Office?

On Dec. 8, 2023, Hays County District Attorney Wes Mau – who, in the face of probable defeat, opted to not run for re-election to the seat he’s held since 2014 – mailed a Request for an Attorney General’s Opinion to the office of Ken Paxton, the unscrupulous lawyer elected to represent the State of Texas.

Mau asked the A.G. whether the Reeferendum in San Marcos – again, passed with 82% of the vote – was unenforceable: “First, is the ordinance preempted by the laws of the State of Texas criminalizing the possession and delivery of marijuana? Second, if the ordinance is void due to preemption, does it expose the city to potential legal action?”

By February, the recipient of the lame-duck D.A.’s letter had become his employer, according to Mau’s LinkedIn profile.

Kelly Higgins, the new Hays County D.A. (who, let’s just say it, resembles The Dude, pot-smoking protagonist of the Cohen Bros’ classic “The Big Lebowski”) canceled that letter. Higgins told the Examiner he was asked by the A.G.’s office whether he was interested in getting an answer to Mr. Mau’s question. “I told them I wasn’t interested in the opinions of the Attorney General,” he said.

A defunct link to Higgins’ private practice prior to his election as D.A. dubs him the “Best Marijuana & Drug Charges Lawyer in Hays County.” Winning on a ballot that for San Martians included pot decriminalization, Higgins pledged to end low-level prosecution countywide, telling San Antonio Express-News, “The principle I want to be able to apply is: Is there really crime here, or is this just THC?… We don’t ever convict anybody of it; we just make them late for work.”

Regardless, Paxton attacked San Marcos’ autonomy as a Home Rule City earlier this year. Just as Mau was setting up his desk in the A.G.’s office, beginning his stint as Assistant Attorney General, his new boss sued San Marcos. In a lawsuit filed against City officials on Jan. 30, the A.G.’s office argues under State law, ‘The governing body of a municipality … [or] a municipal police department … may not adopt a policy under which the entity will not fully enforce laws relating to drugs.’”

Whether or not Paxton succeeds in squashing decriminalization efforts in San Marcos – and the other four Texas cities where his office likewise filed suit to stop pro-pot ballot initiatives – organizers in Lockhart say the Reeferendum will remain on the November ballot.

This month, the Caldwell County Democratic Party observed in a resolution to back the ballot initiative, “the City of Lockhart is responsible for determining how to utilize its local law enforcement resources to best address issues of public safety” and can “exercise local control through ordinances that address local priorities without state interference.”

State interference in San Marcos by way of Paxton’s litigation has sparked Mano Amiga’s ire. The City appears to be locking out champions of the ballot initiative from the legal fight to protect their landslide victory.

San Marcos City Council declined an opportunity to approve the proposed Reeferendum themselves in 2022, rather than send it to the ballot, where it wound up winning more than 4 of every 5 votes. Is Council today trusted to demand this indisputably voter-mandated reduction in policing on our behalf? Or might activists, whose triumph produced the need to protect it, deserve a seat at the table with the lawyers?

Mano Amiga spotlights 3 closed-door discussions on the A.G. lawsuit by Council since February, pondering if “they will not succumb to Paxton’s scare tactics” and “continue to shut the public out of these conversations and leave our community questioning whether they are working to defend the will of the people?”

The Examiner didn’t bother to ask the A.G.’s office for comment on the lawsuit’s status, but the City declined to answer. Ground Game Texas told us, “We are closely collaborating with our San Marcos community to monitor the situation and determine the most appropriate course of action.”

Subscribers to that non-profit’s email list encountered an unexpected message on Mar 29: “Julie here, Five minutes ago I was told on a surprise Zoom call organized by the board in secret that I’m no longer the Executive Director of Ground Game Texas.”

In it, Julie Oliver – seemingly racing the clock before losing access to the organizational email system – scorched “careerist candidate-driven electoral politics” in favor of organizing around popular local items “that transcends the short-term boom and bust of electoral politics.”

Fortunately, the group is in great hands: Catina Voellinger, Chief Operating Officer who oversaw the growth of fundraising and overhaul of communications while taking charge of Ground Game’s largest campaigns, steps in as the new Executive Director.

Learning of Oliver’s removal and bold departing email, the Examiner sprinted to Ground Game’s website: a homepage headline read, “Click below for an important message from the founder,” with a YouTube link to the consequential communiqué.

Alas, we had been Rickrolled.

BY JORDAN BUCKLEY