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DES MOINES, IOWA (AP) -- Some Iowa Republicans are taking issue with ads by the state health department promoting a smoking ban for restaurants and bars.
The Iowa Department of Public Health spent nearly $600,000 on the ads, which are running as the Legislature debates bills that would outlaw smoking in most public places.
Representative Kraig Paulsen, a Hiawatha Republican, says it's "inappropriate" to use taxpayers money to push the Legislature around.
Health department spokesman Don McCormick says the attorney general's office and the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board determined that the ads were legal since they didn't back a specific bill. He says the campaign is an appropriate way to fight the state's top cause of preventable death.
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