Massachusetts Politics

Back in the early-Nineties, 46 attorneys general brought a massive lawsuit against the largest U.S. tobacco companies to recover costs incurred by states in caring for persons afflicted with smoking-related illnesses over a period of many decades.   We the taxpayers are fortunate they did.   Under the terms of the 1998 “Master Settlement Agreement” of that suit, the states collectively have since received in excess of two hundred billion dollars: $200,000,000,000! That money continues to flow at astonishing levels:   during the current fiscal year, the states will derive approximately $7 billion from the settlement.   Massachusetts alone will get over $200 million.   What continues to astonish, as well, is the harm caused by tobacco: smoking will kill more than 480,000 Americans and smoking-related illnesses will necessitate health care spending of approximately $170 billion this year.   In Massachusetts, 16.6% of adults still indulge in the nicotine h...

I can remember the morning but not the year – it was around 1999 or 2000 -- when my boss, Al Minahan, and I drove from downtown to Brookline to meet a prospective client.   We had an appointment with a recently retired surgeon at his home.   His house was on a quiet side street just beyond the Brookline Reservoir, to the left of Boylston Street (Route 9) as you’re leaving the city, and up a hill. The neighborhood had been built on or near what had once been the Lowell Estate.   Dr. Robert Berger answered the bell and ushered us in.   He seemed a little hesitant or distracted.   Maybe he didn’t like the look of us, I thought, or was having second thoughts about hiring a lobbyist.   We’d been referred to Dr. Berger by a friend and fellow lobbyist, a gentleman who could not accept Dr. Berger’s assignment because the goal conflicted with the interests of an existing client. The three of us were soon in Dr. Berger’s first-floor den, where the doctor began search...