May 25 – Advocates for banning the sale of flavored tobacco and vaping products entered this year’s legislative session believing they had the wind at their backs.
Polls showed strong public support for their bill. A handful of municipalities have passed bans while no action was taken at the state level. The public came out in droves for the public hearing and spent time in the lobby talking to lawmakers. And a broad coalition of supporters, ranging from public health advocates to corporations, launched a six-figure advertising campaign to boost lawmakers.
But the session came to a chaotic end last month without a single vote on the bill in the House of Representatives, even though House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, was a co-sponsor.
House leadership’s decision not to vote on the bill after it cleared the Senate by two votes continues to baffle advocates, who have spent $125,000 on video and digital advertising and thousands more to address lawmakers directly to lobby to try to get it across the finish line.
“With Senate approval, it is surprising and disappointing that the House has not even brought this bill up for debate,” former Maine State Chamber of Commerce leader and Flavors Hook Kids Maine campaign member Dana Connors said in a written statement after the hearing . ended up. “I’m not sure why, but it was surprising and disappointing. I do know that the essence of this bill is a reason not to give up, and that it is worth pursuing in future legislative sessions.”
A growing number of states have passed similar bans, which advocates say are necessary to keep tobacco companies from marketing e-cigarettes and menthol cigarettes to young people at risk of lifelong addiction. Opponents argue that the bans mainly affect adults, who should be able to buy the flavor they want, and they say the products provide options for people turning to e-cigarettes and vaping as a way to quit smoking.
The flavored tobacco bill was the most heavily lobbied legislation in Maine this year, attracting a total of more than $300,000 in spending on lobbyists and advertising.
About half of the expenditure, $158,000, was paid for directly lobbying lawmakers. A total of 26 lobbyists, hired by twenty different clients, worked to influence lawmakers and other officials.
Lobbyists testify at public hearings and participate in work sessions to help lawmakers formulate bills and amendments. During session days, they get cornered and try to convince lawmakers in the lobby between the legislative chambers. They organize events, often with the lure of free food, to present their views on an issue or outline their priority legislation.
Another $156,000 was spent on grassroots publicity and education aimed at encouraging citizens and other groups to contact lawmakers.
The state’s system for reporting lobbying costs does not indicate whether the money was spent in support of or against specific bills.
The top spending bills for the most heavily lobbied bills are published by the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices. But digging up a detailed breakdown of spending for each bill is a labor-intensive process, and lobbyists’ monthly reports don’t include basic information, such as whether they are working for or against a bill.
Committee Director Jonathan Wayne said requiring lobbyists to report whether they worked for or against a bill is not as easy as it sounds.
“I’m no expert, but I would expect that sometimes a client’s position on a bill is more complicated than simple support or opposition,” he said. “They could support most of the bill, provided one or two provisions are changed. And sometimes a client’s overall position on an LD can change if changes are made.”
An analysis of expenditure reports on direct lobbying activities does not indicate who spent more: supporters or opponents.
However, data shows that proponents of the ban, led by the National Campaign for Tobacco-Free Children, have vastly outpaced opponents in spending on grassroots advertising that targets audiences through digital and social media ads. Supporters spent $125,000, while Altria Network, which represents tobacco companies, spent just over $31,000 on grassroots outreach to stop the bill.
It is not clear whether lobbying efforts contributed to the bill’s demise. But in the end the votes were not forthcoming.
House leaders told the Press Herald that they never brought the bill to a vote because of factions in the Democratic caucus. The leaders said they did not have the votes to pass LD 1215 and they decided not to list their party members, effectively shielding them from the need to explain to voters in the upcoming elections why they oppose it goods.
“Implementing a massive policy change like LD 1215 takes time, resources and training to be successful,” Talbot Ross said in a written statement. “Despite the compelling evidence and strong support from public health advocates, a broad coalition of stakeholders ultimately decided after many conversations that this initiative still requires more work to gain the necessary votes.”
House Majority Leader Gorham, D-Gorham, said concerns among her group outweighed public pressure to vote on the bill, which has been debated in Augusta for years.
“It became important to take into account everything we were hearing from advocates, but to focus on our caucus,” Terry said. “What we heard from our caucus was that these policies were incredibly important to them, but they wanted to continue working on this issue and consider different positions and different approaches. Rather than rushing into a policy that some of our members felt was not ready, we chose to leave this bill on the table and return to this important work in the next legislative session.”
It is not clear how many Democrats opposed the measure. Without a roll-call vote, it remains unknown where individual MPs stand.
Dan Cashman, spokesman for the Flavors Hooks Kids Maine campaign, called out Democratic leaders for choosing to protect their group instead of children.
“Despite public polling showing that nearly two-thirds of Maine residents support this policy, a political calculation has been made to protect lawmakers from disclosure rather than protect our youth,” Cashman said this week. “This inaction means we face more opportunities for children to become addicted to dangerous, harmful products and become addicted for a lifetime.”
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jill Duson, D-Portland, did not respond to interview requests.
Sometimes the decision not to introduce a high-profile bill can be a sign of behind-the-scenes opposition from the governor, including the threat of a veto. Gov. Janet Mills has yet to overturn any of her roughly 50 vetoes by lawmakers.
But that doesn’t seem to have been the case here. Talbot Ross and Terry said they had no discussions about the bill with the governor’s office.
Spokespeople for Mills said the governor supported the bill and would have signed it into law. They cited Mills’ long-standing efforts to reduce tobacco use among young people, including signing bills into law that made it a Class D crime for anyone over the age of 21 to provide tobacco products to minors and use or possess of electronic smoking devices and tobacco. products on school grounds, school buses or school-sponsored events.
For the past two years, Mills has served as one of two governors on the board of the Truth Initiative, the nation’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing nicotine addiction among young people. She also directed the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to launch a statewide public education campaign to educate young people about the dangers of vaping.
In 2021, Mills’ budget proposal included $32 million to cover any loss of state tax revenue that would accompany a statewide ban on flavored tobacco. The most recent bill imposed a projected loss of $10 million in sales in the first year and $24 million per year thereafter – a figure that assumed that many people who used flavored tobacco would immediately stop buying them and not switch to another tobacco product.
“It was removed from the budget at the time due to Republican objections,” Mills said, Ben Goodman said of the 2021 proposal.
“The Governor continues to support these efforts. Her administration has testified through the Maine CDC in support of LD 1215,” he said. “If the Legislature sent her a funded bill to end the sale of flavored tobacco products, she would sign it into law.”
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