Tobacco Money Background Information

Tobacco Interests
Tobacco interests are defined as the major tobacco companies and tobacco interest groups that lobby and make campaign contributions to Members of the California Legislature. The three tobacco companies that currently lobby and make contributions are Philip Morris USA Inc., Reynolds American Inc. (RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company), and UST Public Affairs Inc. (US Smokeless Tobacco Company) and the one tobacco interest group is the California Distributors Association, which represents major tobacco wholesalers and distributors in California. Two other tobacco companies, Lorillard Tobacco Company and Brown & Williamson, lobbied and made contributions to legislators in past years and these companies are included in historical tables and the contributions database.

Lobbying Expenditures
Tobacco interests hire lobbyists and are therefore considered lobbyist employers by the Secretary of State and are required to submit quarterly disclosure reports. These reports must state which legislative or administrative actions, such as bills or regulations, were lobbied during that quarter and how much money was spent on payments to lobbying firms and activity expenses, which is defined to include gifts, honoraria, consulting fees and salaries. Each quarter covers three months out of the calendar year (January through March, April through June, July through September, and October through December) making a total of eight quarters for the two-year reporting period.

Campaign Contributions
These tobacco interests, like other interest groups, are required by law to submit statements to the Secretary of State that detail campaign contributions twice annually and more often in election years. Campaign contributions include all monetary contributions and non-monetary contributions, such as donated goods or services. Philip Morris USA Inc. files its report of campaign contributions under the name Altria Group Inc.’s Affiliates, and the campaign contributions figures in the quarterly reports and database contain all Altria Group Inc.’s Affiliates’ contributions. Prior to 2007, that included contributions from Kraft Foods Global, Inc. which had filed its contributions under the name Altria Group Inc.’s Affiliates. However, in 2007, Kraft Foods Global, Inc. was spun off from Altria Group Inc.’s Affiliates and stopped filing its campaign contributions under the Altria Group Inc.’s Affiliates name. The US Smokeless Tobacco Company files under the name UST Inc., which includes the US Smokeless Tobacco Company and UST Public Affairs. The campaign finance figures on this website contain all UST Inc. contributions.

Sources
The Secretary of State’s website, http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov, contains a searchable database with all of the figures that are found in the quarterly reports and in the contributions database. While the information on this website attempts to convey accurate campaign finance and lobbying data, it is important to note that these records are subject to amendment by donors and data is subject to change.