Buying Access: the Name of the Game

To the Editor:

Your June 18 article “Cultivating Clout” was extremely informative about what’s going on behind the scenes of the attempt to draft anti-tobacco legislation, involving players who normally aren’t found there.

I had to laugh out loud, though, at one of the quotes attributed to University of Miami law professor Frances Hill. She queries, “Did the cancer society do this because they thought they had to buy access to political circles? If that’s the case, then we need to reform our political process, because neither the cancer society nor any individual should have to buy into representation.”

Is she competing for the 1998 Naivete Award?

Tom Welsh
Development Director
45th Street Clinic
Seattle