Legalization advocates backed by national organizations have had more cash to spend in Oregon and Alaska on advertisements, get-out-the-vote drives and other campaigning, which has included a reporter quitting her job on live television and declaring her support of legal weed.
"Anything short of easy passage in all states is a major defeat for the deep pockets of the legalization advocates," said Kevin Sabet, co-founder of anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
Polls have shown a narrow majority favoring legal pot, with one poll showing the opposite, in left-leaning Oregon, where voters rejected a 2012 recreational pot measure. Polling has been inconsistent in Alaska, a Republican-leaning state with a libertarian streak.
But the D.C. measure has been favored by a two-to-one margin, and advocates say it is needed to decrease the disproportionate number of blacks arrested for pot possession. The measure would allow adults 21 and over to possess up to 2 ounces of cannabis and grow up to six plants.
Meanwhile, a proposed constitutional amendment to make Florida the 24th state and the first in the South to allow medical marijuana faces an uphill battle after well-funded conservative opposition.
And two Maine cities, Lewiston and South Portland, will vote on whether to legalize the possession of small amounts of recreational marijuana.
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