Editing Hunter S. Thompson (section)

===Aspen sheriff campaign===

{{See also|The Battle of Aspen}}
{{stack|[[File:Thompson for 1970 Aspen, Colorado Sheriff poster.jpg|thumb|upright=0.82|alt=Poster with a symbol of a red two-thumbed fist holding a peyote button superimposed on a six-pointed star-shaped sheriff's badge|"Thompson for 1970 Aspen, Colorado Sheriff" poster by [[Thomas W. Benton]]]]}}
{{stack|[[File:Thompson & Whitmire at the sheriff's debate (1970-10-12).jpg|thumb|alt=Photograph; see caption|Thompson (''right'') at a debate with Sheriff Carrol D. Whitmire (''left''), his incumbent opponent.]]}}
{{Infobox election
| election_name = 1970 Pitkin County Sheriff election
| type = presidential
| ongoing = no
| image_size = 125x136px
| image1 = 
| nominee1 = '''Carrol D. Whitmire'''
| party1 = Democratic Party (US)
| popular_vote1 = '''1,533 '''
| percentage1 = '''55.36%'''
| image2 = 
| nominee2 = Hunter S. Thompson
| party2 = [[Gonzo journalism|Freak Power]]
| popular_vote2 = 1,065
| percentage2 = 38.46%
| title = Sheriff
| before_election = Carrol D. Whitmire
| before_party = Democratic Party (US)
| after_election = Carrol D. Whitmire
| after_party = Democratic Party (US)
}}

In 1970, Thompson ran for [[Sheriffs in the United States|sheriff]] of [[Pitkin County, Colorado]], as part of a group of citizens running for local offices on the [[The Battle of Aspen|"Freak Power"]] ticket. The platform included promoting the [[decriminalization of drugs]] (for personal use only, not trafficking, as he disapproved of [[profiteering]]), tearing up the streets and turning them into grassy [[pedestrian mall]]s, banning any building so tall as to obscure the view of the mountains, disarming all police forces, and renaming Aspen "Fat City" to deter investors. Thompson, having shaved his head, referred to the [[crew cut]]-wearing [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] candidate as "my [[hippy|long-haired]] opponent".<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Gilbert |first=Sophie |date=June 26, 2014 |title=When Hunter S. Thompson Ran for Sheriff of Aspen |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/06/when-hunter-s-thompson-ran-for-sheriff-of-aspen/372949/ |url-status=live |magazine=The Atlantic |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326141632/https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/06/when-hunter-s-thompson-ran-for-sheriff-of-aspen/372949/ |archive-date=March 26, 2018 |access-date=March 25, 2018}}</ref>

With polls showing him with a slight lead in a three-way race, Thompson appeared at ''Rolling Stone'' magazine headquarters in San Francisco with a six-pack of beer in hand, and declared to editor [[Jann Wenner]] that he was about to be elected sheriff of Aspen, Colorado, and wished to write about the "Freak Power" movement.<ref name="interviews1976">{{Citation |last=Anson |first=Robert Sam |title=Rolling Stone, Part 2; Hunter Thompson Meets Fear and Loathing Face to Face |date=December 10, 1970 |work=[[New Times (magazine)|New Times]]}}</ref> "[[The Battle of Aspen]]" was Thompson's first feature for the magazine carrying the byline "By: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Candidate for Sheriff)". (Thompson's "Dr" certification was obtained from a mail-order church while he was in San Francisco in the '60s.) Despite the publicity, Thompson lost the election. While carrying the city of Aspen, he garnered only 44% of the county-wide vote in what had become, after the withdrawal of the Republican candidate, a two-way race. Thompson later said that the ''Rolling Stone'' article mobilized more opposition to the Freak Power ticket than supporters.<ref>Hunter S. Thompson (2003), ''[[Kingdom of Fear (book)|Kingdom of Fear]]'', Simon & Schuster, p. 95.</ref> The episode was the subject of the 2020 documentary film ''[[Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb]].'' Writing of the episode more than 50 years later, Wenner wrote, "Aspen didn't get a new sheriff, but I realized that, in Hunter, I had a fellow traveler."<ref name=wennerbook />