Some Legislators Can’t Kick the Nicotine Campaign Cash Habit

Three local GOP state legislators have made an anti-smoking group’s lifetime achievement list for accepting the most money from the tobacco industry.

The American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation puts state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) in 10th place for accepting $37,500 during her career.

But she’s a piker compared to former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. He’s the champ with a whopping $635,742 during his long career.

Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills) ranks 13th, with $38,671, while Assemblyman Bill Hoge (R-Pasadena), who’s just in his first term, claims 20th place with $26,441 in contributions.

For the past two years, Boland and Hoge, who are smokers, rate even higher.

Needing campaign dollars to win her hotly contested primary race for the 21st state Senate seat, Boland has accepted $26,921 this year and last, catapulting her into fourth place for the period.

Hoge, running for reelection against community college president Jack Scott, has accepted $11,500 in 1995-96 for 13th place among state lawmakers.

The top spot for recent tobacco industry contributions is held by Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. The Inglewood Democrat’s campaign coffers were enriched by $86,886 in tobacco money.

Those on the list are being singled out by the anti-smoking group due to concern over how cigarette tax money earmarked for educational programs is being spent.

In a full-page advertisement entitled “Where there’s smoke . . . There’s a politician taking money from the tobacco industry,” the lawmakers were characterized as beholden to tobacco companies and poised to severely restrict funds generated by Proposition 99.

The ballot measure, approved by voters in 1988, raised the tax on a pack of cigarettes by 25 cents. The initiative specified that 20% of the added revenue must go to anti-smoking education efforts and 5% to research on tobacco-related disease.

The ad urges Californians to write their lawmakers and demand that they cut the strings proposed for the expenditure of Proposition 99 money, including a provision that would limit the kinds of anti-smoking publicity campaigns that can be funded with the added revenue.

The proposed restrictions are included in bills that are part of ongoing state budget negotiations.

Many Valley legislators, by the way, refuse tobacco industry donations. They include Assembly members Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), Barbara Friedman (D-North Hollywood), Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles) and state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica).

Mainly on the Plain

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, who has gained a reputation as City Hall’s top art connoisseur, has spent the past week in Madrid.

And while Madrid is home to some of the greatest museums in the world, Wachs was actually there to study . . . land-use issues.

That’s right, for the second year in a row, Wachs attended the USC Law Center’s land-use study seminar. Last year, the seminar was held in Brussels. According to his office, the trip is expected to cost well over $5,000--all of which will be paid for by political contributions in Wachs’ officeholder account, a fund intended to finance the cost of running for or holding office.

Along the way, Wachs made a stop in Nantes, France, to see an art opening--paid for out of his own pocket, according to his chief of staff, Greg Nelson.

George Lefcoe, the USC professor who leads the seminar each year, said the participants are mostly architects, planners, lawyers and Realtors who are interested in learning how other cities and countries address land-use problems.

“In order to see what is feasible, you have to see what others can do,” he said.

Half of the seminar was spent studying buildings, parks and other projects developed in Madrid and nearby Toledo to address problems of blight and congestion. The other half of the time was spent in a classroom setting.

Lefcoe said Madrid was chosen as the site of this year’s seminar thanks to the cooperation of the city’s leaders and because it has quite a bit in common with Los Angeles.

For example, the city’s transportation system is heavily dependent on the automobile. Plus, he said, “people speak Spanish there, just like Los Angeles.”

As for the seminar, participants meet and study for 12 to 14 hours a day. “It’s not a vacation. It’s very hard,” he said.

Shot Down

Assemblyman William J. “Pete” Knight (R-Palmdale) was downright blase about this week’s Senate committee rejection of his concealed-weapons bill, which would make it easier for law-abiding citizens to tote a gun.

He was also nonplused by the long parade of police chiefs and sheriffs who marched to the microphone to urge the Senate Criminal Procedure Committee to nix the proposal, which they did, 5 to 1.

Outside the committee room, Knight said he expected to lose and planned to renew his effort next session, when he hopes to return to the Legislature as a state senator.

“ ‘We’ll be back next year,” he said cheerfully.

Knight, who’s normally in sync with law enforcement, said that being on the other side was not a problem for him.

He accused the police chiefs and sheriffs of having an “arrogant attitude” because they want to substitute their judgment for that of the public regarding who should be allowed to carry concealed weapons.

Knight, a gun owner, said that if his legislation is ever passed, he would consider carrying a concealed weapon.

Name Dropper

Former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley has been honored by having his name given to the Civic Center Metro Rail station, a pedestrian bridge at the White Memorial Center in East Los Angeles and a terminal at Los Angeles International Airport.

But this week, at least one news source made the error of assuming that his name was also bestowed upon the Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley.

In a story about the closing of Lopez Canyon Landfill in Lake View Terrace, the City News Service reported that starting Tuesday, the city’s trash will be hauled to the “Tom Bradley Landfill.”

A spokesman for Waste Management Inc., which owns the dump, said the landfill was named after Bradley Avenue, a city street that runs to the dump. In fact, the landfill was formerly known as the Bradley Avenue Landfill, he said.

So, who is the street named after?

A supervisor for the city’s Bureau of Engineering, which oversees street naming, said his department only keeps files on recent streets that were named in honor of a notable figure. He couldn’t determine whom the street was named for, but he is sure it was not named after Mayor Tom.

Other possible namesakes: Gen. Omar N. Bradley, the World War II commander and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Joseph P. Bradley, former justice of the Supreme Court, and Milton Bradley, who built an empire producing that All-American pastime: board games.

Ruffled and Flourished

The crowd was restless when Burbank resident Lois Wellington took the podium at the National Council of Senior Citizens convention in Chicago on Tuesday to introduce the featured speaker.

“We want Bill! We want Bill!” the audience shouted, drowning out Wellington even before she hit her stride.

Sometimes it’s not easy introducing the president of the United States.

But at least one person in the room wanted to hear Wellington, who is president of the Congress of California Seniors. As the crowd called out for the president, Clinton put his hand in the air to silence them.

After railing at Republicans for trying to tamper with Medicaid and Medicare, Wellington received a standing ovation with her final words: “Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States.”