Tim Sbranti's leading allies, headed by the BART union, are running a tobacco smear campaign. Already, they have spent $1.6 million dollars, produced at least 9 negative pieces of direct mail, and financed attack ads on television and radio.
Leading newspapers have branded the Sbranti/BART Union’s campaign as “disingenuous,” “disgusting,” “a smear campaign” and “steeped in hypocrisy.”
These are the facts:
- I have never worked for a tobacco company.
- I have never taken a campaign donation from a tobacco company.
- As a City Councilmember for Orinda, I voted for tougher requirements on tobacco sales and advertising.
- The work I did for the California Chamber of Commerce – for which I am being attacked – was to elect members to the State Assembly who have actually fought for tougher laws on tobacco.
- In fact, Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom and San Rafael Council Member Marc Levine, both elected to the State Assembly in 2012, are well known as anti-tobacco legislators; Bloom worked to ban smoking on beaches and Levine supports a ban on smoking in multi-family dwellings. Neither has taken campaign contributions from tobacco companies.
Sbranti and the BART unions are attempting to distract voters from focusing on my campaign to ban future BART strikes and Sbranti’s strong pro-strike position.
I urge Sbranti to repudiate these gutter tactics and to reveal the other secret promises he’s made on special-interest questionnaires that he refuses to release. The voters deserve a truthful debate — not a smoke screen of lies from Sbranti and the BART Unions.