Smoking ban opponents file as campaign committee

Expect to see yard signs, bright red fliers and eight-page publications popping up around Cape Girardeau as opponents of a citywide smoking ban are prepping for a final push before the April 5 election.

The group, Stand Up Cape, What's Next?, filed its campaign committee organization form with the Missouri Ethics Commission on March 3, three days before the deadline. The filing is a state requirement for campaign committees planning on spending more than $1,000 to sway voters.

Stand Up Cape plans to continue to get its message out by speaking to civic clubs, a tea party event later this month and is looking into media advertising options, said Doc Cain, a group organizer and owner of Port Cape Girardeau.

"We plan to make a push right up to election day," Cain said. "The issue is too important. We're fighting back."

Twenty-five days remain until election day, when voters will decide whether smoking will be prohibited in all indoor workplaces, including bars, restaurants, casinos and private clubs.

The opponents are getting started in earnest slower than those who support the ban, however. Citizens for a Smoke-Free Cape, the group that gathered signatures to get the issue on the ballot, filed its campaign form Dec. 17 and has already collected $10,680 in donations, although $10,000 of that came as an in-kind contribution from the American Cancer Society.

Ban supporters are working just as hard to convince Cape Girardeau residents that a ban is the healthy choice, said Dave Hardesty, a spokesman for Citizens for a Smoke-Free Cape.

"We're getting real busy," Hardesty said. "Probably doing the same sort of things they are."

The pro-ban group is doing phone banking two nights a week, calling potential voters to ask how they feel about the issue and answering questions they may have, Hardesty said. The group has about a dozen or so "hard-core" volunteers, he said, with a few others who help on occasion.

They also have yard signs that are available and are speaking to civics clubs and other organizations as opportunities become available.

"We're going to work right up to the election," Hardesty said. "We're making the same point that we've made all along -- that this is a health issue, for ourselves and future generations."

Prohibiting smoking in public workplaces would go a good way toward eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke, the third-leading cause of preventable death, Hardesty said.

Cain and the opposition disagrees, saying that it's unwanted government intervention involving property owners' rights and consumer choice to use a legal product.

Cain doesn't think they're coming to the game too late, noting that Stand Up Cape has been organizing under the radar for months, too.

"I definitely think we have time," Cain said. "This is truly a grassroots effort. We're working hard to get our message out there and think people have been very receptive to it. We're going to remind people that they have choices. This is a penalty ordinance. We don't think businesses should be penalized and we don't think the government should tell us how to run our business."

Three other Missouri communities will be voting on a smoking ban April 5 as well: O'Fallon, Webb City and Springfield.

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