Politics dampers smoking-ban rally - Posted March 8, 2008

Number of posts : 7 Registration date : 2008-03-08

By Amy Olson
For the Daily Tribune

Central Wisconsin residents who joined a rally Tuesday in Madison in favor of a statewide smoking ban said they were disappointed with some legislators' responses.

Lee Breezee of the Wood County town of Saratoga and Doug Henderson of Stevens Point estimated more than 1,000 people, including about 30 from central Wisconsin, attended the Citizens For Smoke Free Air rally at Monona Terrace.

"Monona Terrace was packed with people," said Breezee, a retired paper mill worker.

An Assembly smoking-ban proposal passed out of committee Tuesday on a bipartisan 6-3 vote. But there's no guarantee it will be taken up on the floor without compromise, said Rep. J.A. "Doc" Hines, R-Oxford, public health committee chairman.

"We create laws in order to protect ourselves and others, and that's exactly what smoke-free laws do," said cancer survivor and Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, who addressed the crowd. "All the science shows that secondhand smoke is deadly. Going smoke free is one of the greatest steps states can take to protect citizens and prevent cancer.

"The fight against cancer doesn't care if you're a Republican or you're a Democrat. It will attack anytime, anywhere, so that's why efforts like this have to be bipartisan."

Gov. Jim Doyle called on lawmakers to vote on the ban. He predicted it would pass easily in both the Republican-controlled Assembly and the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, disagreed, saying there was no deal yet that could pass the Senate and he wouldn't bring the bill up for a vote until there was. People have to compromise, he said.

Opponents of the measure want to delay its implementation in taverns; backers want the ban to take effect in all workplaces in January.

Breezee and Henderson said they were disgusted and disappointed that some legislators refused to meet with them.

"The rally was a real high, while the meeting with legislative aides, who told us it was bound up in the politics, was a low," said Henderson, a retired University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point psychology professor.

-- The Associated Press
contributed to this report.

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