POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:DeVore is hyped for hemp

By going it alone, at least as far as the GOP is concerned, Newport Beach Assemblyman Chuck DeVore achieved success last week: he was the co-author of a bill that would allow farmers to grow industrial hemp — not the drug marijuana — in California.

The bill squeaked through the Assembly with no GOP support other than from DeVore, but he convinced three Republican senators to vote for it. It came back to the Assembly with amendments Thursday, when it was approved.

“I think I got two extra Republicans to lay off and not vote against it,” DeVore said.

Why is his party so concerned? The election game, naturally.

“Some other Republican can send out a mailer with a marijuana leaf on it that so and so voted” in favor of pot, he said. “I believe that voters are smart enough to know the difference between illegal marijuana and legal industrial hemp.”

A spokesman for the group leading the opposition to the bill argued that marijuana and hemp are “indistinguishable” and thus pose problems for law enforcement.

To become law, the bill must be signed by the governor.

STREAMLINING DENIED

The Greenlight residents group was dealt a blow Friday when an Orange County Superior Court judge refused to speed up the hearing process in the group’s lawsuit against the city of Newport Beach.

Greenlight leader Phil Arst filed the suit Aug. 14 with the goal of blocking a city-written ballot description of Measure X, the Greenlight group’s issue that would require public votes on some development projects.

Arst said the city’s description of the measure is confusing and misleading to voters, and he proposed an alternative. The city description refers to preparing a “specific plan” for development projects and outlines the thresholds at which one is required, while Arst’s suggestion stresses voter approvals for “major developments.”

But Orange County Superior Court Judge Mary Fingal Erickson on Friday wouldn’t agree to hear the suit early and instead continued it until Sept. 7 — after the Orange County Registrar of Voters’ Aug. 31 cutoff to ensure sample ballots are printed on time.

“She [the judge] said she was swamped,” Arst said. “We were disappointed, but it’s a bureaucratic system and that’s what we ran into.”

Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said his office needs ballot materials by Aug. 31 so he can meet his deadlines, which are set by state law. He has accepted materials afterward when a court was involved, however.

VOTING MEETING

The Orange County Registrar of Voters will hold a meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in Santa Ana to share voting information to Costa Mesa and Santa Ana residents in Chinese, English, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese.

The meeting will be held in the Segerstrom High School theater, 2301 W. MacArthur Blvd., Santa Ana. For information, call (714)567-7600 or visit www.ocvote.com.