Orinda, CA -- Leading newspapers have already branded the BART Union’s campaign against Orinda City Council Member and Assembly candidate Steve Glazer as “disingenuous”, “disgusting”, “a smear campaign” and “steeped in hypocrisy.”

Today (May 9, 2014) the Pro-Sbranti campaign released a new mailer that sunk to a new low. Union leaders have apparently focused their $1.6 million campaign on one big lie:  that Glazer works on behalf of tobacco companies. (http://www.glazer4assembly.com/attack_ads)

Glazer had this response:

“Claiming that I work on behalf of tobacco companies is an outrageous and shameless lie.  In my 35-year career, I’ve never worked for tobacco companies.  Nor have I taken a campaign contribution from tobacco companies in this campaign or any other.

“The thin premise for their attack is work I did to elect independent Democrats to the State Assembly.  Both of those candidates, Assembly Members Marc Levine (D-Marin) and Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), have clear anti-tobacco voting records. Bloom worked to ban smoking on beaches and Levine supports a ban on smoking in multi-family dwellings.

“But their real strategy is to distract voters from how I stood up against the BART strike that Tim Sbranti supported. Sbranti and the BART unions are afraid of voters 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.”