Doing a Slow Burn

Norton says the house committee's decisive vote in favor of self-serve cigarette sales raises questions in her mind about overall support in the legislature for an anti-tobacco lawsuit. Activists such as Landman were shocked by Norton's brusque treatment at the hands of the committee. Norton had planned to testify that the counter-sale provision was an important step in controlling youth access to tobacco, but committee chairwoman Mary Ellen Epps, a Republican from Colorado Springs who got $1,600 from big tobacco in her last campaign, cut her off before she could finish speaking.

Norton says she took the slight in stride and adds that her investigators will continue working on the allegations about underage shoplifting even as she awaits the final decision on her funding. In the meantime, she says of the legislature, "we have a lot of educating to do."

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