*** UPDATE ***  I just totally unloaded on the person who sent me the original video because I specifically asked if there was anything else about the topic on the clip and was told in no uncertain terms that what I had been given was all that Kennedy said. Turns out, that wasn’t the case. Here’s the end of Kennedy’s answer…

* Transcript…

Let’s balance our budget the way a great state balances its budget, and if we want to legalize marijuana for other reasons, then let’s do that.

So, he’s getting closer to actually coming right out and saying he’s OK with legalization, but he’s not quite there yet. More importantly, my apologies to the Kennedy campaign.

[ *** End Of Update *** ]

* Tracker footage from last night’s Democratic Women of Kendall County event…

* Transcript…

Audience question: Where do you stand on Illinois legalizing marijuana for recreational use and financial benefits for the state?

Chris Kennedy: I’d say this. We are not a failed state. We have a state government budget problem, that’s what we have. We don’t have an economic problem. Now Gov. Rauner is slowly making that state government budget problem become an economic problem. It doesn’t need to be that way. When Pat Quinn was governor, we had a slightly higher income tax, we had a balanced budget, we were paying our currently due payments under all pension programs, and we were paying down outstanding payables. That’s pretty much all you want out of your government right there. And we can do that again without a lot of harm at anybody in our state, and that’s what we should do. The idea that we should abandon that and instead pay for everything by legalizing marijuana because we don’t want to take on the hard work necessary to balance a budget in a modern state in America is ridiculous. Let’s separate those two issues. Let’s separate those two issues.

Lots of words.

And, may I ask, who are these people who say we should abandon the hard work of balancing a budget and “pay for everything by legalizing marijuana”?

It’s a red herring.

* Related…

* Where do the candidates stand on marijuana?

* Kennedy dodges marijuana questions

* Kennedy vs. Pritzker on legalizing marijuana