Trib Reporters Zero in on Dems and Tobacco Campaign Cash; Contributions Likely to Go Up in Smoke
Chicago Tribune reporters JEFFREY MEITRODT and ASHLEY WIEHLE have trained their sights on House Democrats and big tobacco’s campaign contributions.
Rooting around in campaign finance reports, Meitrodt and Wiehle reported today that tobacco companies contributed $83,000 to 30 lawmakers in the weeks leading up to the February 5th primary. About 3/4th of the dough went to House Democrats.
Meitrodt and Wiehel linked the contributions to the companies desire to see big cigarette tax hikes get rubbed out and exemptions to the state’s new smoking ban carved out. The reporters pointed to a raft of smoking exemption bills that rolled out of the House Rules Committee as evidence that the cash is moving bills.
However, all types of bills are moving out of Rules these days. Even Appropriation bills. Historically, money bills have been imprisoned in Rules. Not this year. They’re in Approriations Committee waiting for hearings. House Dems are in a mood to spend.
Meanwhile, the smokes bills likely will get, well, smoked. But big tobacco apparently has dough to burn.
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The Capitol Fax Blog- Did all those grisly crimes really happen at Burr Oak? July 18, 2009* ABC7’s Ben Bradly and Charles Thomas are patiently sniffing out a story about the grisly Burr Oak Cemetery scandal that could turn into a bombshell. First, the necessary background… Three gravediggers and a cemetery manager unearthed hundreds of corpses from a historic black cemetery south of Chicago, dumping some in a weeded area and double-s […]Rich Miller
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I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Susan Kishner
Thank you, Susan. We’ll keep the flags of discontent flying. David Ormsby