RODRÃ?GUEZ: Don't let them snuff out the smoking ban

Publication Date: 2006-02-09

• Author:Cindy Rodrigues
• Publication:Denver (CO) Post

If government is supposed to be of the people and for the people, why do some state politicians want to serve the interests of business owners over the interests of state residents?

The case in point: a smoking-ban measure that is winding its way through the state House of Representatives.

An important vote will take place Friday morning. Several legislators will attempt to water down the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act of 2006 by adding a slew of exemptions that would make it pointless. . . .

I've already contacted mine, Joel Stanton Judd, D-Denver, and he told me he's all for the clean-air bill, without the exemptions.

R.J. Ours, director of government relations for the American Cancer Society, said every legislator should be called, even the ones who support it. . . .

"We don't know how this is going to turn out," Ours said. "You don't know until the votes are cast."

By then it may be too late.