Deception Seen in Anti-Cigarette Tax Ads

The “undercover cop” in ads against Proposition 99, which would raise the cigarette tax, actually is a part-time actor with a desk job at the Los Angeles Police Department, two doctors said Tuesday while blasting the tobacco industry’s campaign tactics.

“He is not in danger and doesn’t risk his life every day, as stated in the ads, nor does he speak for those who do,” said Dr. Robert Gerber, a spokesman for the San Francisco Medical Society.

Gerber and Dr. John Bolton of the American Academy of Pediatricians charged that the questions surfacing about Sgt. John E. (Jack) Hoar, 40, exemplify the “deceptive” ad campaign opposing the initiative.

The measure, which requires a simple majority to pass, would increase state tobacco taxes to fund anti-smoking campaigns in school, research into smoking-related diseases and health care for the poor and uninsured.

Other inaccuracies, they alleged, include an exaggeration of the cigarette-smuggling problem elsewhere and a false suggestion that local police enforce tax laws. Actually, cigarette taxes are the responsibility of the State Board of Equalization, which has its own inspectors to catch tax-evaders at the places where contraband cigarettes would be sold.

Proposition 99’s sponsors--22 health, firefighter and conservation groups united as the Coalition for a Healthy California--also released what appears to be a document written by Hoar that was submitted to KGO-TV, the ABC station in San Francisco, where the sponsors wanted to air the commercials. In the four-page document, Hoar declares “under perjury and the penalties therein” that, among other things, he is not an actor.

The pro-99 coalition, however, has released a videotaped movie clip showing Hoar acting in a bloody scene from the 1985 movie “To Live and Die in L.A.” Hoar received screen credit as a cast member.

Hoar was not at work Tuesday and could not be reached. But Jeff Raimundo, a spokesman for the tobacco industry-sponsored campaign opposing Proposition 99, Californians Against Unfair Tax Increases, dismissed doubts about the accuracy of the ads--ads that at least two stations, KABC in Los Angeles and KGO--are refusing to air because of doubts about their accuracy.

“He (Hoar) is not an actor. He’s a cop who played a bit part in a movie,” Raimundo said, adding that Gov. George Deukmejian among others have appeared in films and television programs without being labeled an actor. “Jack Hoar is no more an actor than George Deukmejian is.”

Raimundo stuck by his campaign’s claim that a tobacco-tax hike would foster organized, high-stakes smuggling, despite a congressional study that concluded that smuggling in general, and especially organized smuggling, is in decline.

Supporters of the tax hike hammered at that point.

“What they’ve really done is latch on to an issue people really care about--crime--and hidden behind it because they are afraid to debate the merits of Proposition 99,” said Jack Nicholl, director of the campaign promoting the tobacco-tax hike.

“That’s what got the police and sheriffs so angry--they realize they were being used as a front for the tobacco industry,” Nicholl added as he released the names of six Southern California sheriffs endorsing the measure. That list includes Sherman Block in Los Angeles and Brad Gates in Orange County, as well as sheriffs in San Diego, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Groups Drop Objections

Earlier this month, both the California Peace Officers Assn. and California State Sheriffs’ Assn. withdrew their opposition to the proposition, though not in time to have their objections deleted from voter information booklets.

One law enforcement official whose agency would be affected by the new law, but who asked not to be identified, on Tuesday derided the anti-99 ads as “totally ridiculous.”

“We are convinced the ads are right,” Raimundo responded. “Yes, they are dramatic; and, yes, they are also thought-provoking. But we want people to get off the anti-smoking bandwagon.”

“They play on the fears of people,” Gerber said. “They don’t talk at all about what the proposition is going to do.”

Tops among its goals, he said, is a program to teach young people about the dangers of smoking. Gerber said tobacco companies must add 5,000 new customers each day just to make up for the number of people who quit and die. Most lifelong smokers are addicted by the time they are 19, he added, so reaching young people is very important.

“If we can do that,” he said, “we can save some of the 30,000 lives lost in California every year” to cancer, heart disease and other smoking-related afflictions.

So far, however, the controversial ads seem to be having an effect. Last April, more than 75% of voters polled said they supported the initiative; the latest count shows the initiative’s lead has been cut to 58% to 34%.