Tobacco companies spend $40 million fighting Prop 29

The amount of money spent on elections in the U.S. is obscene.

Proposition 29, if passed, would impose an additional $1 tax on every pack of cigarette sold in California.  It should raise over $700 million a year.  Tobacco companies, of course, are not happy.  So they've carpet bombed California airwaves, to the tune of $40 million, in advertising before next month's election.

Soon after this ad aired, the good doctor was removed from a government panel she served on.  Retaliation?

But finally, I saw the first pro-29 ad today.  And they brought out the big guns, i.e. cancer-beating hero/controversial sportsman Lance Armstrong.  But with relatively less money to air the pro-29 ads, it looks like Big Tobacco might win.

Here are the major donors, as of today:

Pro:

American Cancer Society	$7,402,488
Lance Armstrong Foundation	$1,500,000
American Heart Association	$546,256
Michael Bloomberg	$500,000
American Lung Association	$412,086
Volunteers Organized for Community Empowerment	$152,188
ACS Cancer Action Network	$80,000
Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund	$65,000
University of California/San Francisco Foundation	$50,000
Alex Padilla's Ballot Measure Committee	$25,450
T. Gary Rogers	$25,000
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center	$25,000
National Dialogue on Cancer Foundation	$15,000
The Don Perata 2004 campaign fund	$13,504
Tench Coxe	$10,000
Mark Segal	$10,000
Delta Dental of California	$5,000
Malin Burnham	$5,000
James Falaschi	$5,000
Robert Klein	$5,000
Sharon Long	$5,000
Rubio for Senate 2014	$5,000

Anti:

Altria/Philip Morris	$24,029,416
R.J. Reynolds	$9,574,755
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco (Altria/UST LLC)	$2,639,018
American Snuff Company (a Reynolds division)	$1,500,000
California Republican Party	$1,140,909
Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company (a Reynolds division)	$984,000
John Middleton Co. (via Altria), an affiliate of Philip Morris	$640,001
McClane Company, Inc.	$50,000
Californians Against Unaccountable Taxes	$47,744
International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers	$40,000
Core-Mark	$20,665
Trepco West	$5,200
Prometheus International	$2,500
Tatuaje Cigars, Inc.	$2,500
Santa Barbara Cigar & Tobacco	$1,000