Pat Lindsey, Jason Vander Weele and Jessica Mitchell: Please leave us alone!

In this week's St. Louis Post-Dispatch Political Fix blog, an anonymous poster suggested that I was paid to oppose smoking bans by Big Tobacco. I replied that no one pays Keep St. Louis Free! to stand up for St. Louis freedom and property rights:

"No one in Keep St. Louis Free! is paid a dime by any tobacco or air filtration company to fight smoking bans. We do it because we believe in St. Louis freedom and property rights. But Pat Lindsey of the Tobacco-Free Missouri/Greater St. Louis Coalition along with Jason Vander Weele and Jessica Mitchell of Smoke-Free St. Louis City are all hired guns. How long will they continue to accept Big Pharma money to crusade for a policy that threatens small businesses, cause kids to breathe more smoke, and kills innocent people through more drunk driving fatalities? "

I wish these people would leave ordinary St. Louis citizens who enjoy a smoke in a neighborhood tavern alone!