Tobacco Issue Haunts Gore Vice President Accused Of Hiding Income From Farm

Since his impassioned remarks at the Democratic convention about his sister, Nancy, who died of lung cancer in 1984, Vice President Al Gore has been shadowed by questions about his former ownership of a tobacco farm in his home state of Tennessee.

Saturday, as the vice president announced here that three Tennessee cities would receive 75 new police officers as part of the Clinton administration’s 1993 Crime Bill, his spokeswoman denied that Gore had tried to hide income he derived from the farm after he leased it to his father, the former Tennessee Sen. Al Gore, in the 1970s.

The possibility that Gore had meant to deflect attention from his involvement in tobacco was raised Saturday in an article in The Knoxville News-Sentinel, which said that Gore did not itemize disclosure forms required of all members of Congress.

Gore served in the House from 1976 to 1984 and then in the Senate through 1992, when he became vice president.

The spokeswoman, Ginny Terzano, said that the $4,800 Gore received annually from his father through 1990 was identified on the forms as income from “farm pasture lease” and that no itemization was required.

The issue has become a thorny one for the vice president, not only because his sister had been a smoker for 30 years and the Gore family continued to raise tobacco for another seven years after her death, but also because the administration has taken a hard line against efforts of tobacco companies to market their products to teenagers.

President Clinton also supports Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco, a position vehemently opposed by tobacco farmers throughout the South.

The administration has proposed new regulations that would bar tobacco sales within 1,000 feet of schools, tobacco advertising in youth-oriented publications and give-away of T-shirts, baseball caps and other paraphernalia with tobacco insignia.

Terzano said a study by the Center for Responsive Politics showed Gore received $17,690 in contributions from the tobacco industry from 1976 to 1990. She said if he were campaigning for the Senate now, he would reject such contributions.