August 30, 1996, METRO FINAL
SECTION: MAIN NEWS; Pg. A30
GORE'S TOBACCO ADMISSION
A day after emotionally telling the nation about his sister's painful death to lung cancer, Vice President Al Gore found himself sheepishly explaining to reporters Thursday how he accepted campaign contributions from the tobacco industry after her death in 1984.
Records show Gore accepted $9,990 from political action committees that represented tobacco interests while he was a Tennessee senator. That money was given between 1985 and 1990.
"I was continuing to grow into a new way of understanding the issue," Gore said Thursday. "That's just the fact."
During his prime-time speech that moved many delegates to tears at the Democratic National Convention, Gore told about the death of his sister, Nancy, who started smoking at age 13, had a lung removed at 45 and then eventually died in the hospital with her family around her.
Asked about the enormous sum of money that Philip Morris is spending to help sponsor the Democratic National Convention, Gore said: "I think that (policy) ought to be reviewed."
He said the Clinton-Gore campaign is not accepting tobacco contributions.
Reporters also asked Gore about a statement he made to North Carolina tobacco farmers in 1988 -- four years after his sister's death -- during his race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He said then: "Throughout most of my life, I raised tobacco."
He said that he continued to receive an annual lease payment from his tobacco property for a few years after his sister's death until he eventually surrendered the payment.
Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)