ACS CAN Calls Upon Three Candidates to Return Contributions from Philip Morris

American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network continues to call on California politicans to stop taking and give back tobacco industry campaign contributions.  This is an important activitiy that all the other health groups should join immediately.
 
Here is their latest press release
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                        October 27, 2014
 
Contact: Stephanie Winn McCorkle
Associate Director of Media Advocacy, Western Region
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Phone: 916 802-4033
Email: [email protected]
 
ACS CAN CALLS UPON THREE CANDIDATES
TO RETURN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM PHILIP MORRIS
 
SACRAMENTO - As part of its campaign to get tobacco money out of California politics, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) called upon three candidates to return contributions recently made by Philip Morris. ACS CAN has challenged all candidates for the state legislature and statewide office to refrain from accepting political contributions from tobacco companies. The recent contributions from tobacco giant Philip Morris went to curry favor with:

• Bill Brough for his candidate campaign committee “Bill Brough State Assembly 2014” ($4,100). Brough is a candidate for the 73rd Assembly District in Orange County.
• Isadore Hall for his “Inspiration and Hope for California Ballot Measure Committee Controlled by Assmebly Member Hall” ($5,000). Hall currently represents the 64th Assembly District located in Los Angeles and is a candidate for the vacant 35th State Senate District.
• Adam Gray for his “Valley Solutions:  Assemblymember  Adam Gray’s Ballot Measure Committee” ($10,000). Gray is the incumbent Assemblymember from the 21st Assembly District in Stanislaus and Merced counties and is seeking re-election.

“Tobacco is responsible for more than five million deaths a year worldwide, and in California kills more than AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, homicides and suicides combined,” said Jim Knox, vice president of government relations for ACS CAN in California.  “Accepting contributions from tobacco companies legitimizes an industry that is a serious public health menace and makes those who accept it complicit in its devastation.  We call upon all three of these candidates to return the contributions to the Philip Morris.”
 
A report released this month by the University of California San Francisco calculated that smoking costs Californians more than $18 billion a year in health care costs and lost productivity:  http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2014/10/119726/california%E2%80%99s-tobacco-control-efforts-losing-steam-finds-ucsf-report
 
Previously, ACS CAN asked Gov. Brown to return a $100,000 contribution from Philip Morris to his controlled ballot measure committee supporting Propositions 1 and 2. Philip Morris also contributed $250,000 to the California Republican Party this week, increasing the total amount contributed to the party since July 1 to $650,000.
 
More information about the ACS CAN “Snuff Tobacco Money Out of California Politics” can be found at www.notobaccomoney.org.
 
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.acscan.org.
# # #