Anchorage Daily News

A group that wants to stop the new smoking ban in bars, bingo halls and other public places filed a lawsuit Monday, saying the Anchorage city government is illegally campaigning on the issue.

Last year, the Assembly voted to expand the city smoking ban to almost everywhere people still smoke in public. But a group calling itself Stomp the Ban said the new rules go too far. It has collected thousands of signatures to wipe out the changes before the new law kicks in July 1.

That petition drive puts the question to voters, who will decide whether to repeal the expanded ban on April 3.

Now the Stomp the Ban folks say the city is trying to sway people to preserve the smoking ban in its public notice published this month in the newspaper and on the city Web site.

The 400-word notice describes what might happen to the local economy -- and to people's health -- if the ban repeal succeeds. It says less secondhand smoke would mean fewer people would get expensive illnesses and miss time at work, and insurance premiums for everybody would fall.

"Reduced health costs related to further limits on secondhand-smoke exposure will not be realized if Proposition 1 is approved," the notice says.

The notice also cites a University of Alaska Anchorage study that found "no significant" loss of jobs after a city ban on smoking in many public places took effect in 2001.

Alex Crawford filed the suit. Besides his affiliation with Stomp the Ban, he is an Assembly candidate and Alaska Libertarian Party member. He said the city is telling only one side of the story, and its campaign against his group's referendum is against municipal law. The city is supposed to remain neutral, he said.

The lawsuit calls for the city to stop publishing the notice, which is called a "summary of economic effects," and to write a retraction.

City attorney Jim Reeves said the municipality has nothing to apologize for.

"The reason they don't like (the public notice) is because it's not making their argument for them," Reeves said.

Crawford, who said he works as a temporary file clerk for an oil company, filed the lawsuit on his lunch break Monday. Wearing a Columbia jacket and khakis, he described his case in biting cold outside the Anchorage courthouse.

He said the problem with the city's description is what it doesn't say -- that Anchorage businesses told the Assembly they would lose money if the ban were expanded, for example.

"By presenting only one side, they can swing an election," he said.

Reeves said the city can back up everything it published and has complied with city laws.

"I don't think there's any question that there are public health effects of secondhand smoking," he said.

Members of the Alaska Libertarian Party have said the effort to repeal the expanded smoking ban is about government infringement on people's rights.

Crawford said he doesn't even smoke, at least not tobacco.

"This is a pot smoker defending tobacco smokers," he said. "I don't smoke cigarettes. ... But this issue is an important issue because it's one more case of the government going too far."

The new anti-smoking rules were proposed by Assemblymen Dan Coffey and Dick Traini, whose father died of lung disease.

Ban would extend to bars, private clubs, hospital vicinities

Anchorage voters will be asked on April 3 to repeal a smoking ban slated to start July 1 that would outlaw smoking under the following circumstances:

• In homes when child care is being provided for a fee.

• In workplaces with one or more employees.

• Within 50 feet of a hospital or clinic entrance.

• Within 20 feet of city or school offices.

• In bars.

• In tobacco shops.

• In private clubs that are open to the public.