Subcommittee members in big tobacco’s pocket?
Bravo to The Virginian-Pilot and reporter Mike Gruss for looking into the six members of the subcommittee that killed the restaurant smoking ban. In the article, Gruss reveals that:
- Of the top five recipients of money from big tobacco in the General Assembly, three of them are on this subcommittee. $10,000 to Dave Albo, $9,100 to Thomas Wright, and $6,000 to Ward Armstrong.
- Two of the subcommittee members own stock in Altria/Philip Morris.
- The subcommittee is 6% of the House of Delegates, but received 16% of all of the tobacco money given to to GA members, a 267% overrepresentation.
Had they merely voted against the bill in the traditional manner, I could understand chalking up their motivation to something more pure. But instead they killed this — an extremely popular bill — in a secret vote in subcommittee. I call shenanigans.
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