Smokers muster a majority

'Thank you for smoking," read the sign on the desk of Jim Graham, the state's longtime agriculture commissioner.

But the new state motto might very well be: "Smoke 'em if you got 'em."

The state House voted last week against a ban on public smoking. The vote said three things about North Carolina politics.

1) That North Carolina may no longer be Tobacco Road, but it's still Cigarette Street.

2) That there is a fierce individualistic streak in the state.

3) That the House Democratic leadership can no longer call the shots.

Tobacco had long been North Carolina's political sacred cow -- like oil in Texas, automobiles in Michigan, or sugar in Louisiana.

James Duke, and his Durham-based American Tobacco Company, once dominated the world tobacco industry. When the trust-busters broke up American Tobacco, smaller cigarette manufacturers were spun off.

Before NASCAR, basketball, and Wachovia, there were Camels, Chesterfields and Lucky Strikes.

Tobacco was central to North Carolina's economy -- from the growers to the warehousemen to the manufacturers. Tobacco money helped create some of the great universities, most notably Duke. It funded the major foundations. It built great hospitals.

Not surprisingly, smokes dominated Tar Heel politics, providing the money for the political machinery for decades. North Carolina was one of the last states to tax cigarettes and historically has had some of the lowest cigarette taxes in the country.

But even in North Carolina, tobacco's clout has been declining in recent decades with fewer people making their living from the golden leaf and more people aware of the health consequences.

North Carolinians seem conflicted on the issue. A poll taken by Elon University last year found that 70 percent of state voters supported a public smoking ban. But another poll taken by the Civitas Institute this year found that 70 percent of state voters support allowing restaurants and bars to set their own smoking policy.

Health versus individual rights?

Most of the opposition to the smoking ban came from House Republicans, who often serve as the voice of the state's strong individualistic streak. One conservative group called the defeat of the smoking ban "a historic victory for individual liberty and private property rights."

North Carolina may be suing the Tennessee Valley Authority to clean up its polluting smokestacks, but it's quite all right to have thousands of little smokestacks at local restaurants.

Finally, the smoking ban had the backing of the House Democratic leadership. Before the fall of powerful House Speaker Jim Black, some complained about bossism in the House.

The boss is on his way to jail. And the state House has gone democratic -- little D. In the first major test of the new House leadership's clout, House leaders couldn't deliver a majority for the smoking ban.

The cost of clean government may be smoke-filled dining rooms.