Some days, politicians could use a drink. But lawmakers in Michigan may soon find it harder to get one.
Hundreds of bar owners in the Great Lakes
State plan to deprive lawmakers of their hospitality by banning them
from their establishments in protest of the state's smoking ban.
A new group, Protect Private Property Rights
in Michigan, claims it has more than 500 bar owners statewide pledging
to blacklist almost every lawmaker. The idea is to persuade the
Legislature to at least revisit the ban, which went into effect last
year.
"We're going to have to remind Lansing that
our bars are in fact private property, so therefore they are now persona
non grata as of Sept. 1," said Stephen Mace, director of the group and a
bar worker himself.
How effective the ban is could depend on how
much Michigan's lawmakers cherish their local watering holes. Mace said
the primary goal is to get a discussion started again in the capital --
he said many of the Republican candidates who swept into office last
November were opposed to the ban but haven't done much to address it
since their swearing-in.
