Who's in the Tobacco Growers' Caucus?
After Dome noted which legislators represented major cigarette manufacturing employers in North Carolina, a reader noted that others represent tobacco growers.
According to records at the N.C. Department of Agriculture, 11 counties each produced more than $20 million worth of tobacco in 2007: Sampson, Johnston, Wilson, Wayne, Nash, Pitt, Lenoir, Harnett, Greene, Edgecombe and Duplin.
That means the following members represent growers:
In the House: Reps. Larry Bell, James Langdon, Leo Daughtry, Jean Farmer-Butterfield, Joe Tolson, Van Braxton, Efton Sager, Lucy Allen, Angela Bryant, Randy Stewart, Marian McLawhorn, Edith Warren, Arthur Williams, William Wainwright, David Lewis, Jimmy Love, and Russell Tucker.
In the Senate: Sens. Charlie Albertson, David Rouzer, A.B. Swindell, Don Davis, Clark Jenkins, and Harris Blake.
During a 2007 House vote, Reps. Bell, Farmer-Butterfield, Allen, Bryant, Wainwright, Love, and Tucker voted for a smoking ban, while Langdon, Daughtry, Tolson, Braxton, McLawhorn, Warren, Williams, and Lewis voted against it.
Sager and Stewart were not in the House at the time.
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Re: The Tobacco Growers Caucus
Another wrench in this problem...how much Medicaid money does the state allocate to each county. Here's a map:
http://www.dhhs.state.nc.us/dma/2007report/2007tables.pdf (Go to p.13)
I imagine that has something to do with being able to force cooperation in voting for a smoking ban, even though a representative might represent a "Grower" district.
Now I'm just getting academic, and I have no substantive basis at all to claim such muscling is going on.