Smoking is a Nasty Filthy Habit, Like Voting Republican

I'll just start by saying that I am a rabid anti-smoker. I think it's obnoxious to engage in a habit which harms people proximal but not particpatory to the activity in question. On March 1 a law banning smoking in most indoor public places went into effect in Rhode Island. Governor Christine Gregoire said that she supports similar legislation in Washington. There are now nine states that ban smoking in public places: California, Maine, Delaware, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Florida and Rhode Island. SmokeFreeUSA has the deets on smoking bans in the other states. What do these states all have in common? John Kerry carried them all easily in the 2004 Presidential Election. Interesting, eh?