DL

The organization “Partnership for Job Preservation” submitted a ballot proposal and 1400 signatures to undo some of the smoking ban for private clubs, bars and restaurants. Unfortunately for them only 776 of the signatures were valid according to State Attorney General Marc Dann. 1000 were required.

I don’t know whether they can quickly get another batch of signature to make up the difference – but I hope not.

A petition may soon be circulating to get a law loosening the restrictions of the smoking ban on the ballot. The original ban was passed by a significant margin so it’s going to take some work to sell this loosening. Here are some of the things they’re pushing for.

* They want to allow smoking in bars that make less than 10% of their income from food. In other words, they want smoking in bars but not restaurants.

* They want smoking in private clubs

* They want smoking in bowling alleys after 6pm.

It’s a weird mish-mash of items. Presumably this list is the result of compromises necessary to bring together a large enough “Coalition of the willing”.

So, how will it be sold?

My guess is they will concentrate on the private club provision. It’s probably the issue for which people will have the most sympathy. People may sign feeling that, in private clubs people should be able to smoke if they want. They probably will not be told that the provision will put smoking back in bars and bowling alleys.

Another thing petition signers may not be told is what the definition of a private club is. Will it be a definition that truly applies to what we think of as a private club today? Or will it be a definition that allows any establishment to declare itself a private club and thereby exempt itself from the smoking ban? Or will it even be defined at all?

The front group for this petition effort is called the “Partnership for Job Preservation of Ohio” whose web site seems to be down as of this writing.

The group has submitted the proposed petition language to our state attorney general Marc Dann along with 1400 signatures (1000 required) to get the wheels moving. The next steps are (1) 1000 of those signatures have to be deemed valid and (2) Marc Dann has to approve of the petition language which must accurately reflect the intent of the law.

Once those two hurdles are jumped the petitioners will be hitting the streets to collect the necessary 400,000 signatures. At this time it’s not clear whether the Tobacco industry, which heavily financed issue 4, the smoking amendment, last year will be helping to bankroll this effort.