SACRAMENTO -- Sen. Leland Yee is running for mayor in San Francisco, and the last thing he needs is to be labeled as the Big Tobacco candidate.

So Yee found it especially irksome to find himself on a list of legislators who have taken money from tobacco interests. A report by the American Lung Association in California showed Yee as taking $4,300 from tobacco interests -- $3,300 of which came from Philip Morris, the nation's largest cigarette manufacturer.
But, Yee said he returned that money to Philip Morris immediately and demanded a correction from the anti-smoking organization. After the group found that Philip Morris' parent company, Altria, had deleted the contribution in amended statements, Yee received a correction and apology.

"With that, we have removed this contribution from our database and have updated all relevant documents," Paul Knepprath, vice president of Advocacy & Health Initiatives for the American Lung Association wrote in a letter to Yee on Friday. "I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."

Still, Yee had one other tobacco donation to answer for: $1,000 from the California Distributors Association. He said he didn't agree that the distributors' group is a tobacco interest, though donors to its political action committee are largely tobacco manufacturers such as Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds.

"There are all kinds of products they distribute to grocery stores and other stores," Yee said. "If you take their argument to its logical extent, do you not take money from grocery stores? They sell all kinds of products. All these different tobacco companies, that's where you draw the line. And we've voted against their interests consistently."


It's an article of faith for most Democrats to avoid being associated with Big Tobacco.

Of the 77 Democrats in the Legislature, 54 -- 75 percent -- have never received a single dime from tobacco companies or interests associated with them. Only two of the 43 Republicans have not taken tobacco money.

The 41 Republicans currently serving in the Legislature have taken a total of $879,593 since 2001, an average of $21,451 per lawmaker. The 23 Democrats who have taken tobacco money received $283,250, an average of $12,315.

Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose, said that when he took $1,000 from the California Distributors Association in 2007-2008, he had no idea it has a strong affiliation with tobacco.

"I hate to say it, but I'm not as sharp on the PACs as others," Beall said from his San Jose district office. "It's not my priority."

Beall was called out on the contribution by a voter in his district, Linda York, who was outraged he'd taken the money.

In an email to Bay Area News Group, she wrote, "Had I known that Beall was 'in bed' with these types of lobbyists, and as a registered Democrat, I would have voted another way. My mother died of smoking-related complications, and I watched as she died a slow death. With all of the negative ads for smoking, along with better education, most people now know its dangers, including, I'm sure, Assemblyman Beall."
York contacted his office, which said it was news to them that he'd received a tobacco contribution. They assured her that he's opposed to tobacco influence. Beall authored legislation, AB 2344, in 2008 that would have changed the one-time $100 licensing fee for retailers who sell tobacco products to an annual $185 fee.

The money would have gone for enforcement, as well as to breast cancer research.

The bill was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Beall has yet to reintroduce the bill.

Beall said he was also supportive of tobacco cessation programs and initiatives for local fees as a Santa Clara County supervisor.

But York said if indeed he wasn't in bed with tobacco companies, he should return the money.
When asked if he would return the money, Beall said he wouldn't.

"I've already spent it," he said. "I did not solicit this contribution. Why would I give it back to them and they will just give it to other elected officials who support them? I'm not interested in plumping up their fund so they can use it for their own cause."

Beall said that taking the money was "inadvertent. To me it was unsolicited." And, he said, "it certainly didn't influence me. They opposed my bill."

York did not accept his explanation.

"Beall's explanation makes absolutely no sense to me, since he'd just be giving back money he shouldn't have taken in the first place," she wrote in another email. "Is it too much to ask that our politicians have integrity? The voters need to do public searches to see what their candidates are up to in the donation department, if they really want to see what they stand for."

Knepprath, the official from the American Lung Association in California, said it isn't credible for legislators to say they didn't know the California Distributors Association is a tobacco affiliate.

"It would be pretty hard to not know CDA represents tobacco distributors and wholesalers," Knepprath said. "There's plenty of smart people in the Capitol, staffers and others, who know who's doing business with tobacco companies and who represents tobacco distributors."