[CFR-Clips] Oregonian pretends to want CFR

[Dan Meek]

      Payback time for Big Tobacco in Oregon


        Posted by dbates
        <http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssfabout.html> November
        03, 2008 05:33AM

Two years ago the nation's biggest cigarette makers showered Republican 
lawmakers in Oregon with campaign money.

It was an unvarnished attempt to influence their votes on one of the 
biggest issues of the 2007 Legislature, and sure enough, it worked. 
Recipients of all that largesse blocked every attempt to pass a 
cigarette tax that would have helped buy health insurance for needy 
children.

Now the cash-strapped Oregon Republican Party has been rewarded for its 
loyalty. Tobacco giant Reynolds America recently gave $100,000 to 
Promote Oregon, the House Republicans political action committee, plus 
thousands more to GOP candidates in tough election contests.

It's cash that rewards past performance while helping Big Tobacco ensure 
continued fealty in the 2009 Legislature when new calls for cigarette 
taxes are sure to be heard.

This latest example of the pernicious influence of money in Salem is no 
shocking revelation. Sadly, it's just the way things work in the 
Legislature, and Democrats are just as guilty of accepting big handouts 
from labor unions and others whose agendas then miraculously receive the 
utmost attention.

On both sides of the political aisle the same is true for the massive 
amounts of money pumped into campaign chests by business and industry 
groups, timber interests, beverage distributors, farmers, builders, 
developers and others.

The big infusion of tobacco money, however, is different. These 
contributions are entirely legal, and they seek to protect products that 
are legal as well, but neither fact makes the acceptance of this money 
either honorable or wise.

Memo to Oregon Republicans: Tobacco kills. And raising taxes on it is 
good public policy because it helps keep young people from getting 
addicted.

Oregon physicians and nurses know this. So do the American Lung 
Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association 
and every children's advocacy group.

All of these enlightened allies joined in support of legislative 
attempts to fund children's health care through a cigarette tax increase 
in 2007, but the Republican House minority, beholden to the tobacco 
industry, blocked those efforts at every turn. Finally, the Democratic 
majority referred it as a ballot measure, which had broad public support 
until the makers of Camels and Marlboros flooded the TV airwaves with 
$12 million in misleading negative ads.

The Oregon Republican Party hit the financial skids early this year, 
facing more than a quarter-million dollars in debt and an IRS lien for 
failing to pay payroll taxes. The party dug its way out of that deep 
hole but still was barely solvent when the $100,000 infusion of tobacco 
money arrived Oct. 15.

Perhaps there's no connection between the party's shaky fortunes and its 
willingness to dance to the tune of an unsavory piper like Big Tobacco. 
It's a possibility, however, that GOP leaders might want to consider.

/--Bob Caldwell, editorial page editor;/ bobcaldwell at news.oregonian.com 
<mailto:bobcaldwell at news.oregonian.com>

Categories: Editorials 
<http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/editorials/>

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