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women in weed
DIANE RUSSELL F O R M E R D E M O C R AT I C R E P R E S E N TAT I V E | M A I NE H O U S E O F R E P R E S E NTAT I V E S
neleafmag.COM
20
DIANE TOOK ON THE SUPERDELEGATE SYSTEM BY INTRODUCING AN AMENDMENT TO THE MAINE BYLAWS TO LIMIT THEIR POWER.
Sept. 2020
<< In 2008, Diane Russell was working as a cashier at a convenience store in Portland when she decided to run for office in the Maine House of Representatives, where she served from 20082016. By 2011, she was named “Most Valuable State Representative” by The Nation magazine. That was the same year she introduced a bill (on April 20) to legalize, tax and regulate Cannabis in Maine that was ultimately unsuccessful. Undaunted, Diane won re-election in 2012 and reintroduced her legalization bill with bipartisan support. Her motto: Fight like a girl! Diane also led the fight to introduce and pass Ranked Choice Voting, a voting system that allows you to rank your candidates in order of preference. She’s strongly in favor of this new type of electoral system. “It means people can vote their hopes, not their fears. Imagine being able to rank your presidential candidates as we can do in Maine this year for the first time,” Russell said. “Since passing Maine, it has passed in NYC and is on the statewide ballot in Massachusetts and Arkansas, with several other states and communities looking at it. It’s been endorsed now by AOC, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Reich, Jerry Nadler and a host of amazing people. And of course, Bernie’s been on the RCV train for years!” Diane took on the superdelegate system by introducing an amendment to the Maine bylaws to limit their power. That amendment (or variations thereof) was passed by more than 20 state parties in less than two months, and she then took the fight to the national convention and won. As Diane tells it, “It wasn’t a complete win, and we see that donors still have a lot of power to influence primaries, but we got their power significantly checked - enough that folks are still mad about it. I spoke at the national convention.” Since losing her bid for Governor of Maine in the 2018 race, Diane has been working as the Director of Government Affairs for Noble Medical Supply/MFG - a medical supply company working to deploy PPE through the pandemic - and is the managing editor of the Maine Cannabis Chronicle. Diane is also working to create a national conference to educate state lawmakers on how to regulate Cannabis, providing a smart venue where lawmakers from across the country can come to learn about Cannabis from 101 to advanced levels, with an emphasis on home grow, packaging and banking issues. She hopes to form a nonprofit of Cannabis lawmakers and regulators who can learn from each other, advocate together and move the issue forward in a way that balances public health with market practicalities. The inaugural conference was slated for this summer in Philly, but will be pushed to 2021 due to COVID-19. “Serving in government revealed to me how little even our allies in office know about Cannabis and how to properly legalize and regulate it,” says Diane. “I want to put together a conference to teach them the basics and get them an understanding of the important issues. Stopping them outside their offices for five minutes at a time is not enough to enlighten them to the Cannabis community and industry needs.”
STORY by DAN VINKOVETSKY @DANNYDANKOHT/NORTHEAST LEAF | PHOTO by GABE SOUZA @GABEVSOUZA
