Tobacco Documents Online

I WASHINGTON UPDATE Policy and Politics in Brief IT'S ALL DONE WITH SMOKE AND SOME PR BY PETER H. STONE Smokers Alliance has launched an aggressive membership recruitment other young people to sign up members in bars, bingo parlors, bowling alleys around the country. "We've had young people go out to where smokers congregate, and that seems to work pretty well," said William J. Althaus, a former mayor of York, Pa., who is the alliance's chairman. The group is also running advertise- ments in Washington publications, putting out a newsletter, col- lecting signatures on petitions for pro- smoking ballot ini- tiatives and lobby- ing against smok- ing restrictions imposed by state and O;~LY'['(I,tGti' l;:~l(jUlslrl ; Altitjf I)R(,'kGa "1'Jtll ;~'f(;,1rY ~im UVt,'t4Jtiq7Tll,RI' 0 °' ~t~a ~`"'~ eb;,itYtv °~~JeM+ve ances. We~Pt °vr Ciftet. b°.vtlon 'n"~h ~ ~~ Don aJikq %wo not h KeaceePt th~ isBimin i`enn~r- , 1°heU. 7n a t s r~ . . ,,. ~ octetK theNehtaofthe ~ %e`Z°d aee rlghyoftl>e Frnum;dy,l . °'aJorur. h'°~t~ ~ m ~ =~notth 771e N~tm~ S~kere ~ ~~~~cl ;'~~Irwould4iinPi, s OmAuJANCE WIN 1'IIW-224.a322 campaign that pays college stu- WASHINGTON INC. A smokers' rights group that was launched last year with seed money from Philip Morris Inc. is increas- ingly looking like a subsidiary of Burson- Marsteller, the tobacco giant's public rela- tions firm. With help from some high-level execu- tives of the PR firm, the new National of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., chairman of the Ways and Means Commit- tee, which would handle any such legislation. Burson has been a major player in the alliance from the start. The firm, which has long represented Philip Mor- ris, used its grass-roots lobbying unit, the Advo- cacy Communications Team, to start building membership in the group last year. Philip Morris put up an undisclosed sum to underwrite the effurt. In February, Thomas llumber, a senior vice president Her ••' l e ws .:.:.w e ne of Burson who was in p dsthe WQf° °"'- charge ul' the Philip Morris accuunt, s ~ t Smokers 9ro~p helped urganizr the membership drive; and ~ ernments. And the alliance may soon turn its attention to fighting a proposed increase in the feder- al cigarette excise tax-sug- gested by President Clinton as a means of raising money to help finance his health care reform plan. The group boasts that it has 65,000 members in Chicago, home y rth ad : -~ • • and r earlier this ~e„isfng• month, he was named presi- dent and chief executive of the alliance. Kenneth Rietz, who heads Burson's west- ern regional office, was largely responsi- ble for setting up a California chapter that is backing a ballot initiative that would roll back local curbs on smoking. For good measure, Pierre Salinger, Burson's vice chairman, serves on the alliance's advisory board. Humber is well-versed in handling pub- lic relations for the tobacco industry. Before joining Burson in mid-1990, he spent a year as a public affairs director at Philip Morris's European headquarters in Switzerland. Before that, he worked for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. for about a decade. Humber said that the membership recruitment drive, dubbed "Feet in the Streets," has yielded about 5,000 new members a week since it started. The alliance's membership now stands at about 175,tHXl, he said. l le declined to say how much workers are paid for each person recruited. New membc:rs are given a three-month free trial membertihip; Iltunber said that slightly more than half of the current members have joined un that basis. Other members pay $ IU a year. All workers and new m4mbers must sign statements that they are at least 21 years old, he said. The rc:rruitment effurt was tested in Washington and its suburbs before it was D 1244 N 1 1l( )NAL J( ri1ftNAt. i'tU()a

) expanded to othcr areas. It now arvcrs Chicago and all of Maiyland; new drives are under way in New York City and in I'exas, I lumber said. Humber said that the alliancc, which has 30,0OU-40,000 members in Maryland, recently generated about 3,(l(H) letters to that state's Labor and Industry Division, protesting a proposal to ban smoking in enclosed workplaces. In California, the alliance was active earlier this year in collecting signatures for an initiative-to be placed on the election ballot in November-that would override about 270 local antismoking ordinances, replacing them with a less- stringent state law. (Separately, Philip Morris has spent more than $500,000 to support the initiative.) Former Rep. Guy Vander Jagt, R- Mich., who is on the alliance's advisory board, has signed a letter backing the measure. The group's' California chapter is also trying to put together a coalition of businesses to support the initiative. Antismoking groups have charged that many of the 607,000 people who signed the petitions were led to believe that they were supporting a measure to protect nonsmokers and youths. State officials are investigating and have said that if they find evidence of fraud the measure could be removed from the ballot. Meanwhile, the alliance is trying to line up corporations to help finance its activi- ties nationally. Althaus, the chairman, said there are about 20 corporate spon- sors, but he declined to name them. The alliance has also recruited some big names for its 27-member advisory board, including Republican National Committee co-chairwoman Jeanie Austin and Peter G. Kelly, a prominent Demo- crat who's with the Alexandria (Va.)- based lobbying firm of Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly Public Affairs Co. - Tobacco industry sources say that they expect the alliance to bombard Ways and Means Committee members with letters and telephone calls as the panel delibcr- ates on a proposed 75 cents-a-pack in- crease in cigarette taxes. Flumbcr de- clincd to comment on that subject, although he scoffed at the suggestion that the alliance's Chicago chapter was started to target Rcistcnkowski. I lumber said that the proposed excise tax "would he an onerous burden." But, he said, "all issues involving discrimina- tion against smokers arc on the tahlc."  U P D A T E FROM THE K STREET CORRIDOR T he Health Insurance Association of America has struck a deal to put its "Harry and Louise" advertisements into temporary retirement, but other groups are filling the void. The Health Care Leadership Council, a group of major pharmaceutical, insurance and hospital companies, began airing radio ads - at the end of April in nine states, aimed at persuading members of key congres- sional committees to oppose insurance price controls and health care spending limits that President Clinton has proposed. "When it comes to how much [each state] can spend on health care, do you trust the government in Washington and - only the government in Washington to make that decision?" the ad asks, before . providing a toll-free number that will patch callers through to their local Mem- - ber of Congress. The council has budgeted $225,000 for the ads: '`"'The American Medical Association, meanwhile, expects. to spend about ' $250,000 for a print advertising campaign aimed at -opinion leaders in Washing- ton and-otheranetropolitan areas. The ads, headlined "What You Don't Know Can I-Iurt You;" promote legislation devised by the AMA to make health main- ~enance organizations and other health plans disclose more about their coverage =. `hnd hirmg practices: Sen.` Paul Welistone, D-Minn:; a Laborand Human " Resources Committee member, has promised to-offer various features of the bill as amendments to other health reform legislation. -__ Julie Kosterlitz _ ade groups that oppose an employer mandate that would require employers :] to help pay for their workers' health carecoverage are being offered a-chance-- - .-.to demonstrate their grass-roots muscle, ._ :'- Reps. J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and W.J.°(Billy) Tauzin, D-La., have sponsored - a resolution that would allow Members to_v9teAo strike employer mandate pro- visions from any health care reform bill that_reaches the House floor. The two. lawmakers have enlisted the National Federation of Independent Business Inc., 'the National Restaurant Association and the National Association of Wholesale- Distributors, all of which adamantly oppose a mandate, to gin up their members .to lobby for their proposal and help recruit co-sponsors. - ~-•: "Anything we tlo, we need to have grass-roots-support for," Hastert said. "This is a"very good test to see if it's there and to see how they would react." He said that he hopes to get a vote on the resolution in June. If it wins big, he said, that will be a signal to any committees still marking up reform legislation that they shouldn't include a mandate. -James A. Barnes A A A S tateside Associates Inc., an Arlington (Va.) public affairs firm that has pros- i pered by guiding its Fortune 500 clients through the maze of state laws and regulations, is gambling that activist local governments will soon be giving corpo- rate executives major headaches. Earlier this month, Stateside announced that it had purchased Local Government Services, a small company based in Sacramen- to, Calif., that keeps tabs on governmental actions in all of California's 1,500 cities and counties. "Local governments are becoming increasingly more active in public policy matters," said Constance Campanella, Stateside's president. The 25-person firm already advises Mobil Corp. on local governmental actions in California, Florida and New York. .- But giving advice to its clients on state issues remains Stateside's forte. The 1,200-member National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, an Indi- anapolis-based group of property and casualty insurers, recently hired the firm to advise it on insurance matters, including workers' compensation, in all 50 states. -W. John Moore NA't'tONA1..1Ol1RNAl. 5/28/9-t 1245 i