By David Pace
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2001; 6:25 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON –– President-elect Bush's choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services has visited three continents at the expense of a major tobacco company, including a trip to Australia that involved a scuba diving excursion with a tobacco lobbyist.

Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson also has received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from tobacco interests and has been criticized for delaying Wisconsin's entry into the lawsuit against tobacco companies.

After that lawsuit was settled, Thompson proposed spending only $5 million of Wisconsin's $170-million-a-year share on smoking prevention. He ultimately signed a bill that gave much more money for the effort.

Nevertheless, Alicia Peterson, a spokeswoman for the Bush transition team, said Thompson "has a record of opposing youth access to tobacco and tobacco products." Others note Thompson signed four different tobacco tax increases in his state and supported a ban on smoking in the state capitol.

Peterson said Bush selected the Wisconsin governor for HHS because he is "a national leader in welfare reform and health care reform."

Thompson's well-documented links to the tobacco industry, particularly Philip Morris, have caused little outcry among public health advocates as he awaits a confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.

"His record in Wisconsin raises concerns about his commitment to reducing the toll from tobacco," said Bill Corr, executive vice president of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. But, he added, "now that he has been nominated to lead the nation's top health agency, we're hopeful he will be willing to work with the public health community to address tobacco usage in all its forms."

With Thompson's nomination widely expected to be approved, Corr's organization has taken no position. Nor has the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association or the American Cancer Society.

Individual activists have been more vocal.

Stanton Glantz, a professor at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California San Francisco, called Bush's selection of Thompson "stunning."

"It's like we have in hand a vaccine against heart disease and cancer and a secretary of health with a history of working with people who don't want the vaccine administered," said Glantz. He has probed the tobacco industry's influence on tobacco control policy-making in several states and co-authored a 1998 study on Wisconsin.

Among the Thompson-tobacco industry links cited by anti-tobacco activists:

–During the 1990s, Thompson traveled to England, Africa and Australia on trips arranged by the National Governors Association and substantially funded by Philip Morris through three nonprofit groups created to promote free trade. He said at the time he wasn't aware of the company's backing and might not have gone if he had.

"I value your loyalty and friendship," Thompson wrote Andrew Whist, a Philip Morris senior vice president, after the Africa trip in 1995. Following the 1996 to Australia, Thompson wrote Philip Morris lobbyist Jack Lenzi that he was "especially grateful you agreed to take the scuba diving plunge with me."

–Between 1993 and 2000, Thompson collected nearly $100,000 in campaign contributions from executives and political action committees of major tobacco companies and their subsidiaries, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

–As governor, Thompson signed a smokers' rights bill, vetoed a ban on smoking in the general seating area at the Milwaukee Brewers' new stadium, and vetoed legislation that would have let cities impose stricter rules on tobacco than exist in state law.

Thompson's supporters argue that Philip Morris, through its nontobacco food and beer subsidiaries, is Wisconsin's largest employer and he had no choice but to support the company.

They also contend Thompson has demonstrated his independence from Philip Morris by signing into law four separate tobacco tax increases during his 14 years as governor. He also signed into law last year the first ban on smoking in the Wisconsin Capitol.

Even critics of Thompson concede that once he agreed to let the state join the lawsuit against tobacco companies to recover health care costs, he backed it strongly.

And while he proposed only $5 million in smoking prevention spending out of the first year's settlement, Thompson ultimately signed legislation providing $23.5 million for that effort, using his line-item veto to trim only $2.5 million from the legislature's final bill.

"While the governor has not been a champion of tobacco control," said Rachel Tyree, an American Cancer Society spokeswoman, "his record has been improving."

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On the Net:

Study of Tobacco Influence in Wisconsin: http://www.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/wi/