Employers weigh in on smoking initiatives

Publication Date: 2006-10-13

• Author:J. Craig Anderson
• Publication:East Valley Tribune

A ballot initiative that would strip Arizona restaurants and bars of their right to allow smoking has found some unlikely allies: the state’s restaurant association and a small but vocal group of bar owners...

McCarthy said he supports Proposition 201 because he’s concerned about the health of his staff, including a daughter who continued to work there while she was pregnant.

“I want my employees to work in a smoke-free environment,” McCarthy said. “This industry should be no different from a newspaper or any office place.”
McCarthy is in the minority among bar owners. The Arizona Licensed Beverage Association, of which Duke is a member, is the second-largest contributor to competing measure, Proposition 206, after tobacco giant RJ Reynolds, which has given nearly $3 million to the campaign.