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Vincent DeMarco, JD, MA, Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative, 2600 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, (410) 235-9000, demarco@mdinitiative.org
This session will give participants the basic tools needed to implement a grassroots issue campaign on the state or local level. We will describe from beginning to end a successful two-year campaign in Maryland to raise the state's tobacco tax. The effort started in 1997 when a proposal sponsored by the governor to double the state's then 36 cents per pack tax failed and the conventional wisdom was that the tax could not be raised in Maryland while there were budget surpluses. Two years later, Maryland passed a 30-cent per pack increase in the tobacco tax that saved thousands of children from tobacco addiction. This was accomplished by building a powerful coalition of over 360 religious, community and health care groups that made increasing the tobacco tax a top issue in the 1998 state elections. After doing extensive research on the issue, including polling, the coalition demanded that candidates for governor and state legislature sign a pledge to support increasing the tobacco tax to reduce teen smoking. The coalition educated the people of Maryland about which candidates supported the tobacco tax and which did not and voters chose a governor and General Assembly that supported the tobacco tax increase. The session will describe how this campaign worked and will focus on the key role played in it by the Maryland faith community.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.