TOBACCO FEARED STATE'S ACTIVISM

A new cache of internal documents details the tobacco industry's long
obsession with California's smoking wars and its palpable fear that adverse
legislation, if not killed in this bellwether state, would spread
throughout the United States.

Covering parts of three decades of tobacco politics in California, the
documents describe the industry's Herculean efforts to defeat, then blunt,
the effects of the state's tobacco tax initiative, Proposition 99. That
landmark 1988 ballot measure was the nation's first law to earmark tobacco
taxes for anti-smoking programs.

Included are memos lamenting the steady erosion of industry power following
voter approval of the law, which vastly increased the financial resources
of local health agencies and anti-smoking groups.

Beginning within days of Proposition 99's passage and continuing through
the 1990s, the industry tried mightily -- with some success -- during the
annual state budget process to divert tobacco tax money away from
anti-tobacco efforts to various health care programs. Aiding the industry
in this effort was its lobby corps in the state capital of Sacramento,
including Nielsen, Merksamer, a top political law and lobby firm that
counts among its clients Gov. Pete Wilson.

While the tobacco industry had clout in Sacramento, it was hamstrung by
local groups, many of them funded by Proposition 99, that fought to impose
local smoking bans. A 1992 Tobacco Institute memo says it had become
``physically impossible'' to attend all the hearings on smoking ordinances,
``let alone mount successful opposition campaigns.''

The documents were produced by the industry in response to a major suit by
the state of Minnesota. They reveal how the nation's big cigarette makers
sought to strike unusual alliances with other groups that also had a vested
interest in diverting tobacco tax funds.

One such group was the California Medical Association -- although
representatives of the influential physicians' organization say there never
was such an alliance.

The documents also highlight the role that the Dolphin Group, a Los Angeles
consulting firm, has played in representing the interests of tobacco giant
Philip Morris in California. The Dolphin Group now runs the gubernatorial
campaign of Republican Attorney General Dan Lungren.

The preoccupation with California is easy to understand. Although the
percentage of state residents who smoke is below the national average,
California, with its huge population, remains the nation's biggest tobacco
market. Several counties account for more business than many states.

``While we're involved everywhere, California is a very significant market
for us,'' Philip Morris spokesman Brendan McCormick said in an interview
Friday.

Representatives of Dolphin and Nielsen, Merksamer declined comment.

Almost from the day Proposition 99 passed, industry memos bemoaned lost
power due to the vast infusion of money -- roughly $450 million a year --
that flowed into state coffers, with much of it funneled to local health
agencies and private anti-smoking groups.

``The environment for the sale and use of tobacco products in California
continues to deteriorate,'' said a 1991 memo from the Tobacco Institute,
the main tobacco industry trade group. ``And because California serves as a
bellwether state, tobacco-related steps taken there often find their way
into other states.''

The papers are among 33 million pages produced by the industry in the
Minnesota case. They were obtained from a document depository in
Minneapolis by an aide to Stanton Glantz, a medical school professor at the
University of California-San Francisco, who provided them to the Los
Angeles Times.

Glantz, a leader in the anti-tobacco movement, said he was particularly
outraged by industry efforts to enlist the California Medical Association.
``It lets you into the back room to let you see what they were really
doing,'' Glantz said of the documents.

It's not clear from the records whether the doctors group actually did
tobacco industry bidding. However, earlier in the 1990s, the CMA did lobby
Wilson and the Legislature to shift millions of Proposition 99 money away
from some anti-tobacco programs and into care for indigents.

Steven Thompson, the CMA's chief lobbyist, noted that the medical
association had been at odds with some anti-tobacco groups over use of
Proposition 99 funds for indigent health care, but if that dispute aided
the tobacco force, ``that is accidental.''

The documents date from 1977 to 1994.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)