A GROWING STENCH FROM TOBACCO
Hold your noses, Oregonians.
Big Tobacco's campaign against uninsured children in Oregon is
turning from merely smelly to downright malodorous.
Two weeks ago the industry launched a $4.5 million TV and radio
blitz trying to confuse voters about Measure 50, the cigarette
tax increase that would help provide health care to more than
100,000 Oregon children. But the highly misleading ad campaign
may be only the beginning of a much bigger onslaught, on the
heels of a welcome court ruling.
Tobacco makers, using every weapon at their disposal, had
bankrolled a lawsuit seeking to throw Measure 50 off the ballot.
However, Marion County Judge Paul Lipscomb sensibly rejected
every argument in the suit.
So brace yourselves, Oregon voters. The smokescreen is about to
become a mushroom cloud, and you won't even be told it's being
blown at you by the tobacco folks.
Instead, you'll be hearing more and more from "Oregonians
Against the Blank Check." The name is as misleading as the ads,
because it's really just the tobacco companies, a handful of
Oregon cigarette peddlers and a lobbyist and a politician who
accept money from them.
