GOP recruited a pot-party candidate to pull votes from a Democratic congresswoman.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

They offered this guy $15K to run against Angie Craig, MN CD-2, as a third-party marijuana-advocacy candidate but in September he died of a drug overdose. There is a Minnesota statute that says if a major party candidate dies within 79 days of an election a special election has to be called. The GOP's candidate wanted a special election in February and went to court, but the Supreme Court, by Neil Gorsuch of all people, shot him down.

Four months before Legal Marijuana Now Party candidate Adam Weeks died in September, sending the pivotal Second Congressional District race into a legal tailspin, he told a close friend that he had been recruited by Republicans to draw votes away from Democrats.

In a May 20 voice-mail message provided to the Star Tribune, Weeks told a childhood friend that Republicans in the Second District approached him two weeks before the filing deadline to run for Congress in the hopes he’d “pull votes away” from incumbent DFL Rep. Angie Craig and deliver them to the “other guy,” Tyler Kistner, the Republican-endorsed candidate....

Earlier this year, Weeks was struggling financially as the pandemic took a hit on his organic farming business, which he started with his mom. In the voice-mail message, he said he didn’t have any funding to run a campaign, but Republicans were offering him $15,000. It’s not a lot, Weeks acknowledged, “but it’s enough to make door knocks with.”

...Weeks’ sudden death on Sept. 21 triggered a legal battle over the timing of the Second District election, with Republicans arguing a special election should be held in February. State law requires a delay if a major party candidate dies within 79 days of the election. But the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who handles emergency requests from the federal appeals court that oversees Minnesota, denied the request from Kistner on Tuesday.

https://www.startribune.com/gop-recruited-pot-party-candidate-to-pull-votes-from-dfler-he-said/572888651/?refresh=true

[woodsprite]

1. Sounds similar to Delaware's QAnon believer, former drug-running

Mule who was involved with the Mexican drug cartel, and used the Proud Boys as security at one of her campaign events. Her name is Witzke and she’s running against Chris Coons.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. This guy apparently was just a struggling organic farmer with a drug problem

who needed the money.

[MagickMuffin]

3. Legal Marijuana Now Party: I wouldn't call that a major political party

I've never heard of them before so how do they classify as a major political party.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. That's probably why the special election demand failed.