Snoop Dogg (Seth McConnell, Denver Post file)

Reforming cannabis: Is Snoop Dogg hip-hop’s retort to the Koch Brothers?

Could Snoop Dogg be the new Koch Brothers?

The Kochs have been in the news a lot lately as news stories emerge from their expansive and expensive conservative political machine — but could Snoop Dogg be far behind, if on the other side of the political spectrum?

The rapper is using his considerable fame for marijuana reform from Alaska to Colorado. Remember when the MC said he’ll schedule an Alaska show if voters there propel the recreational weed-legalizing Ballot Measure 2 to success in November?

Well now the rapper is blowing up his Instagram with encouragement for Colorado gubernatorial candidate Mike Dunafon, the third-party mayor of Glendale — home to strip club Shotgun Willie’s and soon The Smoking Gun pot shop — and one of the men challenging Governor John Hickenlooper and his Republican challenger Bob Beauprez.

While pollsters in Colorado don’t feel strongly about Dunafon’s chances, Snoop has already changed how he addresses Dunafon.

“Thanks mayor — I mean governor,” Snoop wrote on a recent Instagram collage made up of a photo of he and Dunafon and another picture of a Yes We Cannabis/dunafonforgovernor.com bumper sticker.

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Thanks mayor ! I mean governor

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Snoop was in Denver recently for a music festival gig, and judging from the many photos now floating around local pot-industry social media — of this dispensary owner or that ganjapreneur posing with a half-paying-attention Snoop Dogg — he made himself pretty available to fans.

But making himself available to fans and posting photos of he and a politician on his personal social media are very different things.

Admittedly Snoop is incredibly prolific on Instagram, posting upwards of 15-20 photos per day on the social media. But that doesn’t take away from the reach he’s lending Dunafon. Between the three very similar photos Snoop shared of he and Dunafon, those pics garnered more than 66,000 likes and 500 comments.

And for a third-party politician like Dunafon, those are truly significant numbers.

Of course Instagram likes hardly translate to votes, but Dunafon is clearly doing something right in his effort to garner the hip-hop world’s attention. (He supports marijuana reform, for one.) You can see the music video he made with rapper Wyclef Jean, “The Trap,” right here. And what about the Colorado gubernatorial debate moderated by Public Enemy’s Professor Griff? We have you covered there, too.