WHEN making donations to political campaigns, big tobacco companies get good value for their money. US Congressional voting records show that the more tobacco money politicians receive, the more likely they are to protect tobacco-company interests with their votes.
Douglas Luke and Melissa Krauss of Saint Louis University in Missouri collated the votes of US senators and representatives on 43 tobacco-related bills between 1997 and 2000. Then they compared these with election records showing how much campaign money each had received from tobacco companies between 1993 and 2000 鈥� a total of nearly $7 million.
Republicans were more likely to vote pro-tobacco than Democrats, and politicians from tobacco-growing states also favoured the companies. But even when the researchers accounted statistically for these factors, it was clear that money talks (American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol 27, p 363). Curiously, every $10,000 in contributions made Democrats nearly 10 per cent more likely to vote big tobacco鈥檚 way, while it encouraged Republicans by only 3.5 per cent 鈥� perhaps because they were strongly pro-tobacco to start with.
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鈥淓very $10,000 dollars made Democrats 10 per cent more likely to vote tobacco鈥檚 way鈥�
鈥淣o one can doubt that money is related to votes,鈥� says Luke.
