Anne Landman's Collection
California Initiative
Abstract
This short Philip Morris (PM) memo written by Ellen Merlo (Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs) in 1994 shows how the cigarette company abuses state legislative processes. The memo describes strategies the cigarette company used to combat local smoking restrictions and increased cigarette taxes (Proposition 99) in California in 1994. One strategy was to "create a flurry of legislative activity to confound the antis by introducing various bills and measures to put them on the defensive..."
This indicates that Philip Morris will tie up entire state legislatures with essentially meaningless bills aimed solely at antagonizing public health advocates (the "anti's"). It also indicates the company's ability to introduce legislation at will, showing how the company wields far more power than citizens.
This memo was circulated to executives at the highest levels of Philip Morris.
Fields
- Notes
Thanks to Dr. Richard Hurt for information on this memo.
- Quotes
PHILIP MORRIS USA
TO: Geoff Bible FROM: Ellen Merlo SUBJECT: Califomia Initiative
INTER-OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE 20 PARK AVENUE, NEW YORK NY 10017-5592
DATE: January 12, 1994
As requested, here is a summation of the steps that we will take in California over the next several weeks in order to achieve state-wide preemption with accommodation for smokers.
1. We will file a lawsuit on February 1st against the City of San Francisco over the jurisdictional issue of whether or not the City has the authority to ban workplace smoking. We will be a co-plaintiff along with local business people in this lawsuit and based on precedent and legal advice, we think we have an excellent chance of prevailing.
2. At the state level, we will create a flurry of legislative activity to confound the antis by introducing various bills and measures to put them on the defensive, including asking for an audit of the Proposition 99 trust fund, an investigation of political abuses of the Proposition 99 fund and a resolution to ask U.S. OSHA to establish Indoor Air Quality Standards within the state.
3. We will create the same level of local activity in cities like Anaheim, South San Francisco, Stockton, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, etc. by introducing smoking accommodation bills.
4. Finally, on or about January 17th, we will file a ballot initiative seeking a State preemption bill that provides for smoker accommodation. The Initiative will be filed by three independent business and/or association members. Simultaneous with our filing of the ballot initiative, we will conduct additional polling to ensure that we thoroughly probe voter reaction to this bill, which preliminary polling indicates we have a very good chance of winning.
We will be tracking progress and updating the status of our polling results, as well as any feedback from legislative leadership, as we move through the initiative process.
If at any time during the process we 1) have the opportunity to reach a negotiated settlement through the Legislature for preemption and accommodation, we will do so; and 2) before we submit all signatures to move ahead with the ballot initiative, we will review and evaluate our chances for victory in light of the most current information obtainable.
You will be getting weekly updates as soon as we actually file the Initiative.
CC: M. Bring W. Campbell C. Fuller D. Laufer S. Parrish
- Company
- Philip Morris
- Author
- Merlo, Ellen (PM Corp. Affairs VP)Marketing Services prior to 1986. Understood use of nicotine addiction in selling PM products.
- Recipient
- Bible, Geoffrey C. (PM President & CEO (1994-2002))After a long career with Philip Morris, the Australian-born Bible served as the company's CEO from 1994 until he reached the company's mandatory retirement age in 2002.
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