Polling data and an expensive media market paint a gloomy picture for legalizing recreational marijuana at the ballot this year.

Voters who signed petitions to legalize the recreational use of marijuana were not misled, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge James Smith ruled late Friday, and the measure can be on the ballot.

The ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana has an opposition campaign, but the advocates trying to legalize it say their opposition made a rookie mistake.

The outlook of Democrats in the state got rosier on April 24 when the special election results in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District put the Republican candidate in the bright red district ahead by only 5 percentage points.

While a dozen Republicans are on the ballot for the special election primary in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, campaign spending shows the field of viable candidates is far less crowded.