Big tobacco pumps another $6.2 mn into Colorado ballot initiative

Another infusion of money from big tobacco dominated the campaign finance reports filed this week for Colorado's statewide ballot initiatives, as opponents to a proposed tax increase on cigarettes and other tobacco products pumped $6.2 million more into an already robust war chest.

Virginia-based Altria, the parent company of tobacco giant Philip Morris, has now contributed all $16.2 million toward the effort to defeat Amendment 72, which would add $1.75 in tax to a pack of cigarettes and channel the revenue toward a number of health-related efforts. The industry donations have financed a multi-pronged media campaign questioning the proposed use and oversight of those funds.

Proponents of the measure, who have aimed at reducing smoking among Colorado youth, have countered by raising $2.2 million, led in this most recent reporting period by a $150,000 contribution from the American Heart Association.

With the home stretch of the campaign season, and its accompanying advertising push, other ballot initiatives also added significant money to their campaigns, which cover issues from end-of-life care to minimum wage to politics. Spending on the nine statewide issues now tops $44 million, with one more reporting period remaining before the 8 November election day.

Fundraising on the tobacco tax has far exceeded every other issue, with a total of $18.3 million raised so far. But two other initiatives saw big late-stage donations.

Proposition 106, the measure that would permit medical aid-in-dying, saw each side of the debate get a boost of about a half-million dollars, pushing the total raised in that battle past $7.6 million.

Compassion and Choices Action Network, a Denver-based organisation that advances similar efforts across the country, accounted for the latest $500,000 push to what so far has been a $5.3 million campaign to pass the initiative. Opponents, led by faith-based groups like the Catholic Church, have opposed the proposition by raising $2.35 million, with the Diocese of Pueblo contributing $135,000 in the latest reporting period.

The battle over Amendment 70, which would raise the minimum wage, also saw a significant late surge of cash, much of it from out-of-state organizations, as that battle topped $5.4 million.

The California-based Fairness Project has partnered with campaigns to increase the minimum wage in Washington, DC, Maine, Arizona, California, and Washington in addition to the Colorado effort, and added $400,000 to the nearly $1 million it has pitched in this year. Forces in favor of the measure have raised $3.9 million.

The Virginia-based Workforce Fairness Institute, which advocates for business owners, contributed $200,000 of its $850,000 total during the past two weeks. Opponents overall have raised $1.5 million.

Propositions 107 and 108, which seek to establish a Colorado presidential primary and also allow unaffiliated voters to cast ballots in primaries, added another $500,000 to its now $4.2 million campaign that to this point has no funded opposition issue committee.

Other initiatives, such as Amendment 69, which would create a state-run health care system called ColoradoCare, and Amendment 71, which would make it more difficult to amend the state constitution, added relatively small donations in the last reporting period.

Two other measures, one that would clean up constitutional language referencing slavery and another exempting certain interests from property tax, have raised little or no money in the face of no organized opposition.