Political Winds Blowing Smoke-Free

Lobbyist Struggles As Bans Multiply Through D.C. Area

Lobbyist Melvin Thompson finds his contentions often ignored. (Lucian Perkins - Twp)

Montgomery County, Melvin Thompson could understand. It's filled with government workers. "There's a tendency to believe that government can solve problems for you," he said.

Similar sentiments run in Howard County,home to Columbia, the giant planned community. It wasn't until Prince George's County moved last month to outlaw smoking in bars and restaurants, he says, that he fully understood how rapidly smoke-free forces can now move through jurisdictions.

Thompson is a lobbyist for restaurant and bar owners in Maryland. He fights proposed smoking bans. Tracking his recent efforts helps explain how an area stretching from the District to just south of Baltimore could soon become a no-fly zone for smoking in bars and restaurants.

The Montgomery County ordinance is two years old. Howard's ban was proposed Oct. 25. The next day, a D.C. Council committee approved its measure. In Prince George's, council members will hold a hearing Tuesday and are poised to pass it.

"Initially, I wouldn't have said Prince George's was vulnerable," Thompson said, citing the county's desire to lure sit-down restaurants, concerns raised by the county's chamber of commerce and a strong working-class bar crowd near the Route 1 corridor.

But statistics indicate that fewer than one in four voters smoke. At the same time, anti-smoking advocates have been presenting politicians with more research concluding that the bans don't hurt the restaurant business overall and that they protect workers from secondhand smoke. Last month, Montgomery released a study showing that its ban hasn't hurt its hospitality industry.

"In terms of what's good for votes, it's a political no-brainer," said Thompson, who asserts that many of the studies are flawed.

In Virginia, where tobacco interests have long held political sway, a statewide ban on smoking in bars and restaurants seems unlikely anytime soon. And because the state's constitution generally forbids counties from passing laws more restrictive than the state's, local jurisdictions are hindered in efforts to pass anti-smoking measures. Still, in Alexandria, more than 50 restaurants have voluntarily agreed to ban smoking on their premises, according to city officials.

"I think the entire state of Maryland and D.C. within the next two years will be smoke-free," said Kari Appler, executive director of the Smoke Free Maryland Coalition and Thompson's political arch-opponent on the issue.

Thompson said there are plenty of battlegrounds left, such as Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties. Smoke Free Maryland's polling data show that although support is strong for statewide bans in suburban Washington, it drops to 55 percent in suburban Baltimore.

Thompson and his supporters say the bans hit certain establishments hard, such as those catering to sports fans and draft beer drinkers. Thompson also takes the position that the known dangers of secondhand smoke are repeatedly overcooked. But, he said, sighing, fewer politicians want to hear his arguments.

"I don't need a ton of bricks to fall down on my head to know they don't want to sit down with us," he said of the Prince George's County Council's nine members, only two of whom have returned his recent calls.