Statewide ban could burn out

Publication Date: 2007-03-14

• Author:John Patterson
• Publication:Daily Herald

Sitting in his Capitol office just moments before heading off to voting against a statewide smoking ban, Senate President Emil Jones Jr. reached for the pack of Salems on his desk and lit up.

It’s a scene that may best sum up the political challenges for those trying to prohibit smoking in public places throughout Illinois. Jones, the influential Chicago Democrat, thinks it’s a bad idea. So, too, does the Senate Republican leader, Frank Watson of downstate Greenville.

“I don’t smoke myself,� said Watson, a pharmacist. “But it’s not against the law to smoke. Let the business people decide.�

Yet despite such clout-heavy opposition, the proposal continues to smolder. A week ago it won a narrow endorsement from a key Senate committee despite “no� votes from both Jones and Watson — a political rarity. A nearly identical plan has enjoyed similar initial success in the Illinois House where influential House Speaker Michael Madigan supports the plan and Gov. Rod Blagojevich appears to lean that way as well.