That may be about to change. An array of health and anticancer groups has rallied behind a ballot initiative to impose a $1-a-pack cigarette tax to finance cancer research. And that has provoked a $47 million storm of advertisements, overwhelmingly financed by the tobacco industry, which is outspending proponents by nearly four to one to defeat the biggest threat it has faced in over a decade.
An independent poll released two weeks ago signaled the power of the assault: While a majority of California voters still say they support Proposition 29, as it is known, the percentage has dropped markedly since the campaign began, according to the Public Policy Institute of California poll. The vote is on Tuesday.
The latest frontier in the fight against smoking is a very unlikely place: a state that has long been identified with championing restrictions on smoking. The battle has drawn national attention — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York contributed $500,000 to the initiative, and Lance Armstrong, the bicycling champion and cancer survivor, has become its chief public advocate — reflecting the frustration of antismoking groups on their defeats here. The Legislature has voted down over 30 attempts to raise cigarette taxes in 30 years.
“You think of California as a healthy, progressive state leading in tobacco cessation,” said Chris Lehman, one of the organizers behind the initiative. “It’s just not. And it’s not for lack of trying.”
California’s dominance as a leading antismoking state has declined significantly since it passed, in 1998, what was at the time the toughest antismoking bill in the country, according to the American Cancer Society. Since then, 23 states have passed tougher laws. The cancer society has contributed more than $7 million to get Proposition 29 passed.
“California has been a leader, not only in the country but in the world, in efforts to curb smoking,” said John R. Seffrin, the chief executive of the society. “They are overdue.”
The tax, which would raise an estimated $735 million, is being voted on as California is reeling from a new wave of bad budget news. Gov. Jerry Brown announced last month that the state was facing a deficit of $16 billion, and proposed a round of severe spending cuts to deal with it.
But none of the $735 million would go to close the deficit. Organizers argued that the tax would have less chance of passing if voters thought it would go into the state coffers, and said their only goal here was cutting down on smoking. Raising the cost of tobacco has proved to be the most effective way of discouraging smoking, particularly among teenagers.
“The voters in this state are disinclined to give money — even tobacco money — to the Legislature to spend: They don’t trust them with the money,” said Don Perata, a Democrat and former president pro tem of the State Senate, who is the author of the proposition. “We’ve become such a damned antitax state that we’ve demonized any kind of tax.”
Still, the image of a $735 million windfall rushing in at a time when California is facing a three-week cut in the school year has proved, at the least, discordant. The editorial board of The Los Angeles Times, while proclaiming itself uncomfortable to be siding with the tobacco industry, urged voters to defeat it.
“It just doesn’t make sense for the state to get into the medical research business to the tune of half a billion dollars a year when it has so many other important unmet needs,” it said. And opponents have seized on this as one of their central arguments.
“Isn’t that a little strange?” said Michael C. Genest, a former director of finance for the state who worked as a consultant to the “No on 29” effort, noting that Mr. Brown had just announced the state’s latest budget shortfall. “It’s astonishing to me that someone would go to these lengths to have a major tax increase and none of it would go to the budget.”
At 87 cents, the cigarette tax here is about half the national average, and ranks 33rd in the nation — down from third highest just years ago. California is one of only three states that have not raise the cigarette tax over the past decade. About 12 percent of Californians now smoke.
Drawing on rich coffers, opponents of the proposition have hammered the proposal, warning that money raised would go out of state (which organizers call a complete fallacy) and would have no legislative oversight. Support for the proposition has dropped 14 points since March, to 53 percent, according to the poll.
Cigarette taxes were last increased in California in 1998, in that case by 50 cents in a voter initiative. California was widely viewed as a leader in the antismoking effort, from a punitive tax on cigarette smoking to a raft of laws barring cigarette smoking in restaurants, sidewalks, public places and in some areas, apartment buildings. Efforts in Sacramento to raise the tax have repeatedly failed, attesting to the contributions of the tobacco industry as well as the requirement for a two-thirds vote on any tax increase.
Philip Morris USA and the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company are the leading contributors behind the effort to defeat Prop 29. It has also drawn almost $1 million from the California Republican Party.
In addition to the American Cancer Society and Mr. Bloomberg, the proposition is backed by the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association, among other groups.
Mr. Armstrong said he thought many people were “shocked by the amount of money that big tobacco is spending.” But he said he remained optimistic.
“This is our best opportunity, we think,” he said.
Source: www.nytimes.com
California a rich state for Obama and Romney - Los Angeles Times
Money.
Obama, in a quick fundraising trip this week, will hit San Francisco and Beverly Hills, locales that rank high on his list of major donors. The Beverly Hills gala on Wednesday, headlined by the singer Pink, and a dinner the same evening could raise as much as $10 million.
Romney spent much of last week raising millions in GOP enclaves such as Del Mar, Newport Beach, Riverside and the Central Valley, as well as the wealthy communities of Beverly Hills and, in the Bay Area, Hillsborough.
Californians have already contributed $60 million to the president and his Republican rival, as well as more than $5 million to other candidates whose efforts failed, according to federal disclosure reports of donations through April 30, the most recent available. Obama has taken in $49 million of that largesse, in donations to his campaign and assorted party groups. (As the incumbent, he has been able to take advantage of higher donation levels than Romney, who just recently saw his fundraising targets rise.)
The state and its wealthy donors have always served as a source of bounty for national politicians, who spend years cultivating individual donors before the pinnacle of national contests.
The donors get access to power, for a price. What they don't get — given the state's strongly Democratic tilt — is a chance to see their dollars in action here. Their millions will be spent on campaign operations in Chicago and Boston, advertising in battleground states such as Ohio and Iowa, and get-out-the-vote efforts in states like Nevada and North Carolina.
"Both in terms of money and time and resources, Californians know the majority of what they contribute, those efforts or dollars or phone calls, are probably going to be applied elsewhere," said Ken Solomon, chief executive of the Tennis Channel and co-chairman of Obama's Southern California fundraising effort.
"Most people understand it's not just for us; it's for a greater good," he added.
Fundraising, like all things in a political campaign, is a careful balance of risk and reward — unflattering perceptions versus cool, hard cash. Obama raised eyebrows when he criticized Romney for his past leadership of a private equity firm as the president was raising money from people in the same industry. Romney was chided by political observers on both sides of the aisle for last week's Nevada fundraiser with Donald Trump, who continues to push disproven theories about where Obama was born.
The California events are no different. When Obama headlined a gala at actor George Clooney's house in Studio City, it highlighted GOP criticism that he was more interested in celebrities than the common man. When Romney held an event in a 95-room mansion in Hillsborough last week, the setting reminded voters that he is an exceptionally wealthy man who Democrats have long argued is out of touch. Meg Whitman, a national finance co-chairwoman for the GOP candidate and longtime Romney confidant who lives near Hillsborough, had been expected to attend but did not. Whitman, CEO ofHewlett-Packard, recently announced the layoffs of 27,000 people at the company.
As might be expected, both parties draw their California cash predominantly from the moneyed sections of the state — Brentwood ranks first among California ZIP Codes for Obama, with $1.5 million given this cycle, and fifth for Romney, with $241,000. Beverly Hills came in second for Obama, with $1.4 million donated, and fourth for Romney, at $271,000. Orange County may be ceding its strongly Republican image because of demographic changes, but Newport Beach still ranks above all others when it comes to GOP financing, giving $314,000 to Romney.
Donations by industry also vary greatly, and split along traditional Democratic and Republican lines. Obama has raised 16 times as much money as Romney from the entertainment industry in California, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics that looked only at the two men's individual campaign accounts. Romney has raised substantially more money than Obama from donors involved in agriculture and the financial sector.
Fundraising has dominated the president's recent visits to California; he has not held a public rally in some time.
Obama's top donor regions are classic Democratic strongholds. No areas in Orange or San Diego counties appear on his Top 10. After Brentwood and the 90210 neighborhood of Beverly Hills comes Atherton, near San Francisco, where donors gave $1 million, the same amount gained from a San Francisco ZIP code. The two were among five Bay Area communities to make the Top 10.
The fundraising figures don't include two runs the president made to California in May. His star-studded dinner at Clooney's raised nearly $15 million, believed to be a one-night record. His later three-event, 16-hour swing through the Bay Area reportedly netted an additional $4 million.
Obama's numbers have been driven not only by the state's Democratic leanings but by the benefits of incumbency — for more than a year, he has been able to raise far greater sums than Romney because of federal fundraising rules.
Candidates can raise a total of $5,000 per person for their personal campaign coffers, and looking solely at those numbers, Romney and Obama are close — the president has raised nearly $13 million from Californians, while the GOP challenger has raised $11 million.
Yet the bulk of Obama's fundraising has occurred through a "victory fund" — a joint fundraising committee of his campaign, the Democratic National Committee and an additional federal account — that can raise $75,800 per donor over a two-year cycle.
While Obama has been able to raise these larger figures for well over a year, Romney could not start raising the sums with the Republican National Committee and state parties until mid-April, after he became the presumptive nominee. The first filings disclosing the new fundraising will not be made until July. The Romney campaign has declined to detail its joint California fundraising thus far.
GOP fundraisers say well-heeled Californian Republicans have been looking forward to being able to write larger checks to help Romney take the White House in November. Shawn Steel, former state party chairman, co-hosted a fundraising dinner for Romney in late March at the Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles.
"Lots of people were eagerly writing checks, and when they were told that once we have a nominee, instead of giving $2,500, they can give up to $35,000, you should have heard the excitement in the crowd," he said.
Like Obama's, Romney's financial strongholds follow logical patterns. Newport Beach, where Romney held a fundraiser Friday evening at the Balboa Bay Club, was one of three Orange County ZIP Codes in his Top 10. Neighbors of Romney's beachfront mansion in La Jolla were also generous, taking second place with nearly $305,000.
The finance reports also reflect that after a long primary season, GOP donors who once supported other candidates have consolidated behind their presumptive nominee.
"I really do think the entire base of Republican donors are embracing Romney now," said Jeff Miller, former fundraising chairman of the state party and a former backer of Texas Gov. Rick Perry. "Republicans now want to move and want to take on Obama."
Maloy Moore and Sandra Poindexter in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Source: www.latimes.com
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