Smoking out legislators
One of the charms and hazards of working around the General Assembly is the existence of smoke-filled back rooms…quite literally. Pretty much everywhere in the state capital complex, legislators, lobbyists, constituent visitors and even us scrubby media types can light up at will. The two exceptions are the floors of the House and Senate.
Smokers around these parts include at least one fellow who has a habit of lighting really nasty smelling cigars.
(Full disclosure: I’m not a smoker and don’t like the smell of it.)
Well, this morning the Senate’s Health Care committee passed a bill today that would ban smoking in the legislative complex. The vote was unanimous.
It’ll be interesting to see what the honorables do with this, since a number of them smoke and a few of them interpret any limitation on smoking as an attack on the tobacco industry.