AUGUSTA, Maine — Despite more than $100,000 in lobbying and a bipartisan coalition behind it, Maine lawmakers failed this year to pass a ban on flavored tobacco sales.
The long-running effort to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and other tobacco products in Maine never came up for a vote in the House of Representatives during this year’s shortened session that concluded earlier in May. House approval was needed after the Senate narrowly passed last year the bill from Sen. Jill Duson, D-Portland, before lawmakers did not fund it.
Duson’s bill would have taken effect in 2025 and initially cost about $10 million in lost state revenue before rising to about $24 million annually in the next two years. A similar downfall came for a proposed ban in 2021 that Republicans stripped from a budget deal.
Although it stalled this year, no other bill had more money spent on it in terms of lobbying. Outside groups spent about $158,000 to lobby either for or against Duson’s legislation, according to records filed with the Maine Ethics Commission.
A huge chunk of that spending came from a national anti-tobacco group that used $125,000 for advertisements supporting Duson’s bill. But the bill never came up for a vote on the last day of the session. That is likely because of lingering opposition from rural Democrats who have joined most Republicans to vote against similar past measures.
The Flavors Hook Kids Maine coalition featuring various groups blamed the failure on a “handful of legislators [who] sided with Big Tobacco and prioritized corporate profits over kids’ health,” per spokesperson Dan Cashman.
Charlie Summers, president of the Maine Energy Marketers Association, which represents convenience stores, said opponents were pleased but “would have preferred that this misguided legislation had been defeated by a vote of the Legislature.”
“The bottom line is that bans don’t work,” Summers said.
Tobacco ban lobbying outpaced the roughly $144,000 spent on a bill that became law without Gov. Janet Mills’ signature to allow towns to charge cable providers fees for using public right-of-way infrastructure such as poles and wires. Dueling data privacy proposals that failed to pass tied for third by each receiving $50,000 in lobbying-related spending.
Maine Ethics Commission records show an array of groups paid lobbyists to work for and against the bill, ranging from the Cigar Association of America to health groups such as the Maine Medical Association and American Lung Association.
More specifics on much of the lobbying is limited due to the monthly spending being less than $1,000, but “grassroots lobbying” records from the ethics commission reveal big spenders included the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which is based in Washington, D.C., and Altria, which is based in Richmond, Virginia.
Those additional records show the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids spent $125,000 for advertisements in support of the ban, with two individuals with Democratic connections listed as primary lobbyists — Kate Knox with Bernstein Shur and Laura Harper with Hallowell-based Moose Ridge Associates.
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Altria Client Services LLC paid more than $31,000 to its primary in-house lobbyist, Jon Shaer, who previously led the New England Convenience Store & Energy Marketers Association, which also opposed Duson’s bill.
Altria paid smaller sums to various Maine-based lobbyists, including former Maine House Republican leader Josh Tardy with Mitchell Tardy Jackson. The Augusta firm led all lobbying firms in spending about $531,000 on five lobbyists who represented 35 clients on numerous issues, per the ethics commission.
Duson’s proposal to ban flavored tobacco sales has never featured a neat partisan divide, with the administration of Gov. Janet Mills and the conservative Christian Civic League of Maine supporting a ban and various Democrats opposing it.
Massachusetts and California are the only states that ban all flavored tobacco product sales, including menthol cigarettes, while several others only outlaw flavored e-cigarettes. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company challenged the California ban, but the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the case in January.
Various Maine cities have passed their own bans on flavored tobacco sales. Hallowell became the latest to do so in February, joining Bar Harbor, Falmouth, Portland, South Portland, Bangor and Brunswick.
