Republican House candidate Ricky Gill cancels fundraiser in marijuana flap

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_21175991/political-blotter-house-candidate-ricky-gill-cancels-fundraiser

Republican congressional candidate Ricky Gill canceled a Stockton fundraiser that was to be co-hosted by a businessman whose son was just indicted on federal marijuana charges.

Those who brought the event to my attention believe Gill's association with anyone under federal investigation or indictment is damning, especially given that this is the second instance. My colleague, Lisa Vorderbrueggen, has written about the Gill family's business connections to -- and Gill's own campaign contributions, later returned, from -- Harvey Whittemore, the Nevada lobbyist now under federal indictment in a campaign-finance scandal.

But this seems like a somewhat different matter, given the debate now raging in California and elsewhere over the Obama Administration's crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries operating in accordance with state and local laws.

Matthew Davies, Bruce Davies' son, was indicted by a federal grand jury this month on marijuana cultivation charges; he and two other Stockton men are accused of having grown marijuana in a warehouse and a home within the city.

The Stockton Record reports that a multiagency probe began last September after Davies told a CHP officer that he was on his way to his marijuana storage facility, where he stored marijuana for his Medizen dispensary in Sacramento, because the burglar alarm had gone off -- hardly an effort to hide his activities. Federal agents later seized 1,962 plants and 40 pounds of processed marijuana from the warehouse, which also apparently had supplied the Central Valley Caregivers Cooperative in Stockton.

Gill is running against Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, in the newly drawn 9th Congressional District. McNerney in 2008 reversed his previous opposition to medical marijuana, voicing support for an amendment that would bar the federal government from spending money to investigate and prosecute those who are operating in accordance with their states' medical marijuana laws.

Gill spokesman Colin Hunter today said the campaign canceled the fundraiser as soon as Matthew Davies' indictment was reported in the Record, and Gill has not received any contributions from the Davies family.