Remember as a kid when you declared a certain day “Opposite Day”? All day long, no was yes, goodbye was hello, and hate was love? Well, when I first read this story, I thought this might have been cooked up in celebration of that childhood tradition. Turns out, I was wrong. Dead wrong.
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, in Tampa, Florida, has hired lobbyists to advocate for the institution in Florida's capitol, and seven of those lobbyists are also tobacco lobbyists. Progress Florida's Mark Ferrulo reports:
“Sebastian Aleksander is another Florida lobbyist registered to represent the Moffitt Cancer Center. He’s also got some dandy clients in his portfolio, notably Reynolds American and Swedish Match North America. Reynolds American is the parent company of R.J Reynolds Tobacco Company, manufacturer of 1 out of every 3 cigarettes sold in the country.”
Now, for many lobbyists, money talks, and such an obvious conflict of interest is probably not an issue. But for a cancer treatment center? If the Moffitt Center hires lobbyists to advocate for funding for the hospital, wouldn't they stop to think that any success these lobbyists achieve for their other clients might cancel it out?