Senate overturns vote on club smoking ban

AUGUSTA – The Maine Senate changed its mind Monday about smoking in private clubs and overturned its vote from last week in support of snuffing out smokes in Elks, American Legion and other clubs that have employees.

The Senate’s 21-13 vote Monday against the club smoking ban came just a few days after its unexpected vote to put the ban in place. The measure now goes back to the House.

Monday’s vote also followed a debate in which senators defending the ban said it’s consistent with state policy to protect the health of people in the workplace, while treating businesses and clubs equally on no-smoking regulations.

“Ultimately this is about the health of workers … It is about fairness,” said Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland.

Opposing senators stressed that the state has already dealt with the issue of smoking in clubs. Last week, both the House and Senate gave all-but-final approval to a bill to correct what critics see as a flaw in procedures for voting on whether to allow smoking in private clubs.

In effect, the bill would allow club smoking policy to be decided by a majority of club members who return ballots, rather than a majority of all of a club’s members.