Unlike the Lakers, HB Jackson Can Take It To The Hoop!

Although Altria does much more than sell tobacco -- Hannah Beth Jackson takes it to Strickland pretty hard here. Can you blame her? This is the time to distinguish yourself from the other candidate. Associating Strickland with a "cartel" certainly does that. Here's a statement sent from her campaign:

Over 440,000 Americans die early, costly, preventable deaths from tobacco, and over 2,000 children begin illegal tobacco use each day. In August 2006, after a criminal prosecution extending over 8 years, the US tobacco cartel was found guilty on federal racketeering charges for “marketing and selling their lethal product with zeal, deception, with a single-minded focus on their financial success and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted,” (Judge Kessler). This same cartel spends over $1.8 million dollars a year in California in contributions to elected officials and candidates, to limit regulation of their products and stop effective tobacco control that would reduce smoking and thereby reduce the astronomical costs to the public of tobacco-related disease. It is deeply troubling to me that any candidate for public office would be complicit in so seriously undermining the public interest and public health.

In light of the extraordinary dangers posed by tobacco products and the tobacco industry’s defense of their use, I call upon my opponent in the race for the 19th Senate District to return all contributions received from tobacco companies or their representatives, including

• the over $6,000 received directly by Strickland for Senate for the current campaign;
  
  
• the $50,000 received by the Ventura County Republican Party which is clearly earmarked for this State Senate contest;
  
  
• the over $85,000 which Tony Strickland campaign committees have received directly from tobacco interests throughout his career in the State Assembly
  

My record as a public official is clear. Tobacco Industry money has no influence on my vote. As a member of the Assembly and as a candidate for the 19th State Senate District I have not and will not solicit or accept contributions from tobacco companies. I received one of the highest scores in the legislature on tobacco control issues from independent reviews by the UCSF Medical School . As a representative of the 19th Senate District I will advocate for a return to the public health strategies first implemented in the early 90s in California , which included highly effective media communications and public education on the dangers of tobacco, and caused immediate and significant decreases in the rates of smoking among Californians.

The American Medical Association recommends that its members, state and local medical societies, to determine whether candidates for federal state and local offices accept gifts or contributions of any kind from the tobacco industry, and publicize their findings to both their members and to the public (AMA Resolution CSA Rep. 3, A-04). I urge California AMA Chapters, doctors, nurses, everyone in health related professions and in the media to carefully monitor the spending by the tobacco industry in the campaign for Senate District 19, so that the public can safely predict how their representative will vote and advocate on tobacco control related issues.

--Hannah-Beth Jackson, June 17, 2008