Advocating for Health: 2019 Capitol Information & Education Days

Jennifer Geisler: Strengthening a Relationship

My group met with Assembly Member Todd Gloria. He sat down to speak with us directly, and we all had a good conversation. He relates to the Native American Population as well as the LGBTQ Community. He is very involved in both of these communities and helps when he can.

He was interested in hearing more about upcoming tobacco bills and learning what he could do in support. Todd has been a friend of my husband’s for years. They sat on the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) board for many years together. When I walked into his office, he joked, “Hey I was just texting your husband.” I never thought he would remember me like that.

Working with tribes is different. Federally recognized tribes have equal standing with state governments. This means we are doing a lot of government-to-government interaction. We make it work by building strong personal relationships. Things work best when they, or we, can just call one another or text whenever we need to. Being able to meet with Todd was important. I know this strengthened our relationship with him. We can call and reach him directly if we need to. He understands the tribal aspect and how to work with tribes.

Crystal Mantle: A Knowledgeable, Supportive Assemblymember

My team met with Nestor Lopez from Assemblyman Ken Cooley’s office. We spoke about general issues related to secondhand smoke as well as ways the tobacco industry is specifically targeting California’s diverse populations. Mr. Lopez was interested in our work with California Tribal Nations. He appreciated our examples of ways tobacco advertising has focused in on Native Americans. We described the exploitation of the Native American community in tobacco advertising featuring sacred and ceremonial images, and discussed how inappropriate it is to use these images to market and promote deadly products.

Assemblyman Cooley’s office is very supportive of tobacco control efforts, and they are knowledgeable about tobacco control. We spoke about the great work that has been done to date. With emerging issues such as vaping and flavored tobacco products, we acknowledged there is still more work to do.

We also invited his staff to attend upcoming meetings at the Sacramento County Tobacco Control Coalition.

Wendy Kaplan: Excited to Participate in the Advocacy Process

For I&E Days, I went with the Asian-Pacific Islander (API) Caucus to speak with a consultant for the statewide California Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus (APILC). This type of meeting is similar to those my colleagues had with individual legislators, but we were meeting with a legislative caucus.

There were four parts to our presentation:

1. We introduced ourselves as representatives who work with Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities throughout the state addressing tobacco control issues.
2.  We described the impact of tobacco on our communities and explained that policies are an effective strategy for countering the tobacco industry’s efforts to intentionally target our communities.
3. We shared personal stories of how common tobacco use is in our communities.
4. We ended by thanking the consultant for listening to us and encouraged her to visit our communities to see firsthand the impact the tobacco industry has had on our neighborhoods. We also invited her to attend one of our community events.

The consultant listened and was very supportive. It was my first I&E Days experience and it was exciting to participate in the advocacy process.

Theresa Boschert: Different Sides of the Aisle

My group met with two representatives from different sides of the aisle. The first was Democrat Todd Gloria, Assembly Member for the 78^th district (San Diego). He is only the second person of Filipino heritage ever elected to the California State Assembly. Todd is a graduate of the University of San Diego and an enrolled member of the Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. He is also Vice-Chair of the Assembly LGBTQ Caucus.

Todd started out his public service career working for San Diego county agencies, where he developed an interest in working on solutions to homelessness. He has a robust understanding of smoke-free multi-family housing as a social justice issue (something I wrote about in an earlier blog post). He also expressed concerns over the fact that youth are being targeted by tobacco companies to use vaping products such as JUULs, and the ease of addiction when nicotine is disguised by kid-friendly flavors. He expressed support for restricting access to flavored nicotine products as a logical step to protect youth from a predatory tobacco industry.

Our second representative was Republican Frank Bigelow, representing California’s 5^th Assembly District (parts of Amador County and all of Calaveras County). Assemblyman Bigelow has been the chair of the Rural Caucus of the Assembly. He expressed a reluctance to share his opinion on flavored tobacco and vape products, although he said he was “keeping an open mind” on the issue. Assemblyman Bigelow also expressed his belief in allowing businesses to regulate themselves as much as possible.

I&E visits were an important opportunity to meet with two policymakers who were both polite, intelligent people of goodwill with completely different lived experiences and apparently diametrically opposed political views. This reminded me of how important it is for us to frame our educational and policy efforts in ways that both sides of the aisle can understand and relate to.

Manveer Sahota: Thanking a Champion of Health Equity

Initially, my group met with Aracely Campa, Capitol Director for State Senator Benjamin “Ben” Hueso of Senate District 40. We were helped by information provided by the American Lung Association for I&E Days (biographies of the representatives, voting records, useful tips, leader guides, etc.) on all senators and assembly persons.

Senator Hueso and his team fully support tobacco control efforts. He has voted for all Assembly Bills, Senate Bills and Senate concurrent resolution measures supporting smoke-free state parks and beaches. Mrs. Campa welcomed us and showed real interest as we presented data and information on JUUL and discussed the heavy targeting of diverse communities (LGBTQ, African Americans, Tribal Natives, Hispanic/Latinx & Youth), which are being flooded with misleading tobacco advertisement and media. We provided a folder containing information on our continued efforts to support smoke-free work places, housing and public places/events. We see these measures as vital steps in creating greater health equity.

Unexpectedly, as we were on our way out, Senator Hueso himself invited us all into his office. We sat around his table and were able to share our presentation directly with him. We invited him to read the information provided in our folder, thanked him for his support in these efforts and encouraged him to keep leading this fight for health equity for all.