Rapper Snoop Dogg has canceled a Halloween weekend musical festival that was meant, in part, to endorse and boost the campaign of political dark horse Mike Dunafon, an unaffiliated long-shot contender for governor of Colorado.
Snoop was among many headliners expected to appear in Glendale, a small enclave in Denver where Dunafon is mayor. The three day music festival, called Yes We Cannabis, was also intended to be a rally for legal marijuana.
The libertarian-leaning politician drew national headlines for the first time in his race when he released a campaign video featuring him, Snoop and Wyclef Jean rapping about “the trap” of over-regulation and big government. (RELATED: Snoop Dogg Endorses Colorado Governor Candidate)
It was a short-term sensation in part because Dunafon, which the Denver Post described as “Hemingway-esque,” is an incongruous addition to the hip-hop scene.
“(Wyclef Jean) said to me, ‘Why don’t we cut a hip-hop [song],’” Dunafon told the paper’s Reverb section, adding that he met the Grammy-winning artist at a pot rally in Denver. “And I said, ‘These are cowboy boots.’”
But the improbable prospect of a live duet with the rapper and his cowboy buddy was scuttled this week when Dunafon confirmed the festival was off.
“Snoop’s people told us, ‘Yes, it’s happening,’ and we believed them,” Dunafon told the Post. “And then it got crushed.”
He said it was the result of political pressure brought by his opponents for office.
“I’m disappointed,” Dunafon said. “Is it the end of the world? No. We got a whole bunch of traction out of Snoop. He’s a believer of what I’m doing.”
Political observers don’t see it as the end of the world either, just the end of a weird sideshow that brought a little quirkiness to the governor’s race, in which almost all eyes are on two candidates — incumbent Democrat John Hickenlooper and his GOP challenger Bob Beauprez.
“I don’t see many voters sitting out there saying, ‘I don’t know what to do, let me see what Snoop Dogg is up to,’” independent political analyst Eric Sondermann told Reverb. “Dunafon is a sideshow, but it’s a fun and interesting sideshow that could impact the main show.”
Indeed the race is close enough between Hickenlooper and Beauprez that Dunafon could be a spoiler. While small government is his mantra, Dunafon is also widely known as a staunch advocate for legal marijuana. Neither major party candidate is thrilled with Colorado’s reputation as the country’s pot capital and Beauprez even said he would like to see the 2012 voter-approved constitutional amendment overturned.
“I think Dunafon has less to do with liberalism or conservatism and more to do with quirkiness,” Sondermann said in the Reverb article, “and our incumbent governor built a whole brand around being quirky, so potentially he would have more to lose here.”
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