Legalizing marijuana is the right thing to do for Pennsylvania for reasons of justice and state finances, according to one Democratic candidate for governor.

And, according to John Hanger, it is also a key to the Democratic Party's political aspirations in the Commonwealth this November. "This issue is moving and Democrats better get on board or we'll lose this election to Tom Corbett because people will not come out and vote," Hanger said Wednesday night at Lehigh University in Bethlehem. "We must expand the voting population."

Hanger, who was secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection during Gov. Ed Rendell's second term, was one of six Democratic candidates for governor who came to Iacocca Hall to participate in a forum sponsored by the Lehigh University Democratic Club and numerous other local Democratic groups. No other candidate raised the issue of legalizing cannabis during the portion of the forum that was for the benefit of all in the room.

For most of the evening, candidates circulated through six "issues stations" where they got to talk to voters in small groups about reproductive rights, labor, senior citizens issues, education, environment and equality. The environmental issues station had the biggest crowds, thanks to a group of 20 or so protesters affiliated with the consumer-rights group Food & Water Watch who were there to advocate for a statewide moratorium on natural gas fracking.

Candidate Max Myers, a clergyman and small business owner from the Harrisburg area, said he would favor such a moratorium, while Hanger pledged the toughest natural gas drilling regulations in the nation.

A couple of the candidates said they had never participated in a forum quite like it. Candidate Katie McGinty, who preceded Hanger as DEP secretary, said it was her first experience with "speed-dating."

The other candidates who participated were Lebanon County Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz, businessman and former Rendell Revenue Secretary Tom Wolf and, the Lehigh Valley favorite, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski. Absent from the forum were two of the apparent frontrunners in the race for the Democratic nomination: U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz of Philadelphia and current Pennsylvania Treasurer Rob McCord.