Purpose:  To discuss the detrimental policy implications of tobacco control advocacy efforts on state and local tobacco control programs in New Jersey.

Methods:  Data were collected and analyzed from key informant interviews, state-funded grantee reports, meeting observations, training assessments, state budgets, state legislation, local ordinances, news and journal articles, and other sources. 

Results:  In fiscal year (FY) 1999, under a Republican Governor, New Jersey’s Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program (CTCP) enjoyed a $30 million/year budget appropriation from Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) monies and a gubernatorial promise of level funding on a go-forward basis.  By FY 2004, under a Democratic Governor, the CTCP budget was slashed by 66%, to $10 million/year from tobacco excise taxes, with absolutely no assurance that even its current level of funding would continue into FY 2005.  Tobacco control advocates in New Jersey, while thinking of themselves as more politically savvy than their predecessors in Massachusetts, made a series of ill-conceived advocacy decisions that helped state policymakers and administrators to justify de-funding the CTCP.

Conclusion:  In these tight budget times, with many states having failed to utilize MSA revenues and tobacco excise taxes to fund tobacco-related programs, it is absolutely essential that tobacco control advocates enter the policy arena with full awareness of how to operate in the political sphere.  Instead of learning from the advocacy mistakes of their colleagues in other states, NJ tobacco control advocates followed in their footsteps and helped to create a similar policy outcome: the demise of state-funded tobacco control programs.