[CFR-Announce] Tobacco Money Persuades Oregon Legislators

[Dan Meek]

Here is another example of why we need campaign finance reform in Oregon.

By the way, none of  the "campaign finance reform" bills the Legislature 
is considering has any limits whatsoever on campaign contributions, 
which is the essence of our Petition #8 and Petition #37.  Oregon will 
remain among the 5 states with no limits of any sort on political 
campaign contributions, thus allowing the corporations to continue to 
dominate Oregon.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

*Oregon Anti-smoking bills all but snuffed out*

SALEM (AP) -- Bills pushed by anti-smoking advocates to ban smoking in 
bars and taverns, reinstate a 10-cent-a-pack cigarette tax and allow 
only "fire-safe" cigarettes to be sold in the state have been all but 
snuffed out by Oregon lawmakers this year.

*The measures drew opposition from tobacco and restaurant industry 
interests who contribute heavily to legislative campaigns* as well as 
from lawmakers who are loathe to approve additional taxes or impose more 
regulation on business.

With the 2005 session moving into its final weeks, the Tobacco-Free 
Coalition of Oregon says it appears the Legislature isn't going to deal 
with "the state's No. 1 public health issue" -- tobacco use that causes 
more than 7,000 premature deaths in Oregon each year and exposes 
thousands of others to second-hand smoke.

John Valley of the American Heart Association, one of the leading groups 
involved with the coalition, says anti-smoking and health care advocates 
might try to take one or more of the issues directly to Oregon voters 
next year.

"I would be surprised if there wasn't an effort to put a cigarette tax 
on the 2006 ballot if the Legislature does nothing," he said.

Valley and other advocates aren't giving up on the Legislature just yet, 
but they are facing some well-heeled opponents.

*Tobacco companies, for example, contributed about $130,000 to 
legislative candidates last year, including $15,000 to Republican House 
Speaker Karen Minnis*, according to figures compiled by the Money in 
Politics Research Action Project, a campaign finance watchdog group.

Minnis has been instrumental in blocking efforts by health care 
activists and anti-smoking groups to reinstate a 10-cent-a-pack 
cigarette tax that was extinguished when voters rejected the 
Legislature's $800 million tax hike in February 2004.

The groups say raising the cigarette tax would discourage smoking among 
young people by making cigarettes more expensive and provide more money 
to cover thousands of low-income people who are being kicked off the 
Oregon Health Plan because of the state's money squeeze.

But the move is opposed by Minnis and other House Republicans who say 
Oregonians have made it clear they don't want higher taxes and by 
tobacco industry officials who say it's not fair to raise taxes just on 
smokers to pay for health care for all.

*Minnis also opposes a Senate-passed "fire-safe" cigarettes bill 
requiring that cigarettes be made of paper that will extinguish if the 
cigarette is not being smoked, which supporters say would cut down on 
thousands of fires across the country caused by unattended cigarettes.*

The Republican House speaker agrees with the tobacco industry's argument 
that the federal government should set uniform standards for fire-safe 
cigarettes to prevent 50 different state requirements.

Among the other top recipients of campaign dollars from tobacco 
companies is Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown, D-Portland, who got 
$10,500, according to the Money in Politics group.

As part of the Senate leadership team, Brown helped make the decision to 
not have the Senate vote on a bill to extend the state's workplace 
tobacco ban to the smokers' last indoor business refuge -- bars and taverns.

In 2001, the Legislature passed a measure that outlawed smoking in 
businesses but exempted bars, taverns, bowling alleys and bingo halls in 
most places.

Now anti-smoking activists are seeking to extend the smoking ban to 
those remaining businesses, a move that's opposed by the tobacco 
industry as well as by the powerful Oregon Resturant Association, which 
contributed $228,000 to legislative candidates last year.

Brown said the campaign money didn't sway her decision and that she 
wanted to spare her Senate colleagues from having to vote on the bill 
when it would face certain defeat in the Republican-controlled House.

Valley, the Heart Association spokesman, said he thinks it's an open 
question about how much lawmakers were influenced by campaign 
contributions from groups who opposed the anti-smoking bills.

"I don't think it's mere coincidence" that all three bills are 
languishing, he said. "My feeling is that there is some connection 
between campaign contributions and how lawmakers look at issues."

Copyright © 2005 Corvallis Gazette-Times