CiglessBot 31 Oct 2007 07:30 pm
Tobacco campaign tops record $11 million (Oregonian)
The tobacco money against Measure 50’s proposed cigarette tax increase keeps piling in. Philip Morris has donated another $1.1 million to the campaign, putting total contributions to that effort over $11 million.
Philip Morris, the Richmond, Va.,-based maker of Marlboro cigarettes, and its parent company have donated $6.9 million to Stop The Measure 50 Tax Hike. Reynolds American, the maker of Camels, has contributed $4.8 million to another committee opposing the proposal, Oregonians Against The Blank Check.
Measure 50 would raise cigarette taxes by 85 cents a pack and use the money for children’s health insurance and other health programs. The campaign supporting the measure, Yes on the Healthy Kids Plan, has reported raising and spending $3.2 million so far. The proposal is one of two statewide measures on the Nov. 6 vote-by-mail ballot.Only one campaign for or against a statewide ballot measure had ever topped $7 million in contributions in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to Democracy Reform Oregon, which monitors campaign finance activity. That was a 1992 effort against two measures proposing to shut down and close the Trojan nuclear power plant, which raised just more than $7 million in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Source: The Oregonian, – Dave Hogan
