(from from The Portland Press Herald)

The House backed the ban on a lopsided vote of 100-48 Tuesday afternoon, stunning even its supporters, who had predicted hours earlier that the outcome was too close to call.

Later in the day, the House easily beat back four amendments without debate and sent the smoking ban to the Senate, which may take it up today or Thursday.

"It's a tremendous victory for Maine restaurant workers, the Maine public and Maine restaurants," said Dr. Dora Ann Mills, director of the state Bureau of Health, who watched the debate and the vote from the rear of the House chamber.

In effect, the bill would ban smoking in restaurants and in restaurants that have bars, but it would exempt free-standing bars, taverns, lounges and hotel lounges.

Tuesday's votes were especially significant because the House rejected a similar ban by a large margin in 1997. The Senate, which backed the ban two years ago, is almost certain to do so again this year.

If the Senate goes along in preliminary voting, final enactment by both branches of the Legislature is all but inevitable. Gov. Angus King supports the ban and will sign it into law if the Legislature sends it to him.

Once the bill has been signed, it will take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns. The legislative session is expected to end in late May or early June, so the ban is likely to go into effect in late August or early September.

The first and most important House vote followed a 90-minute debate in which supporters argued that the ban is needed to protect restaurant employees from secondhand smoke. That marked a change in their traditional strategy, which had focused on protecting the general public rather than restaurant workers.

Observers said later that Tuesday's voting was rare because the debate was unusually persuasive and helped decide the outcome. More commonly, legislative debates give lawmakers a chance to place their views on record without really altering the result, which is often predictable in advance.

"I think the floor debate moved a lot of people" who had been undecided or even opposed to the ban, said Rep. David Etnier, D-Harpswell, the bill's sponsor.

"Please, think about the (restaurant) workers," Rep. Joseph Bruno, R-Raymond, told the House before the vote. "Don't think about the minority smokers out there. Think about the workers."

"No one says a smoker cannot smoke with this bill," said Rep. Elaine Fuller, D-Manchester. "We simply ask them to refrain from smoking while they're in a restaurant."

Other supporters, including some lawmakers who voted against a ban in 1997, said voters in their districts overwhelmingly support a ban and restaurant owners are primarily concerned with making sure all restaurants operate under the same rules.

Noting that she opposed a ban when the House rejected it two years ago, Rep. Julie Ann O'Brien, R-Augusta, said she changed her mind a few days ago because her constituents clearly support the ban, and by a wide margin, too.

"I am voting for my constituents in my district this time and voting for the ban," O'Brien told the House.

One of the most impassioned supporters was Rep. Glenys Lovett, R-Scarborough, who has emphysema, a chronic lung disease. Noting that 150,000 Mainers have emphysema, bronchitis or asthma, Lovett said she once believed restaurant owners should be free to call the shots in their own businesses. Now, she said, she believes she is being discriminated against by restaurants that allow their customers to smoke.

"I cannot breathe" in a room containing smoke, Lovett said. "Do you know how scary that is, when you cannot get your breath?"

Opponents countered that restaurants should have the right to allow smoking if they choose and that the state should not engage in what one lawmaker called "social engineering." They said the state should let adults make decisions for themselves instead of trying to legislate good health.

"Should we make a law to lock our refrigerators after we reach a certain weight?" asked Rep. John Buck, R-Yarmouth. "After all, it's good for us."

Rep. Joseph Brooks, D-Winterport, said restaurants already have the right to ban smoking on their own initiative and communities have the power to adopt ordinances banning smoking in restaurants, as Portland has done. He said banning smoking in restaurants statewide will hurt some businesses and may even put some restaurants out of business.

"I can't vote for something that will hurt as many businesses as this does," Brooks said.

Portland residents approved Maine's first ban on smoking in restaurants last November.

The ordinance took effect in December, but the city will not actively enforce it until May 15, in order to give restaurateurs time to build special walled-off rooms for smokers.

The proposed statewide ban would not apply to bars and hotel lounges, prompting some critics to complain that it proposes a double standard by demanding clean air for restaurant workers but not for bartenders. The ban would affect some 5,000 restaurants in Maine, but another 300 bars and other businesses would not be covered.

"I guess the smoke in one place is better than the smoke in the other," said Rep. Tom Winsor, R-Norway. "That doesn't make any sense to me. That's not leveling the playing field."

Attempts late Tuesday to amend the proposed law were summarily rejected.

One of the defeated amendments would have exempted small, family-owned restaurants from the ban. Another would have delayed the ban for several weeks to avoid inconveniencing restaurants and their patrons Labor Day weekend. A third, which was backed by the Maine Restaurant Association, would have allowed smoking in restaurants if they are ventilated.

The amendment proposed by the restaurant owners was offered by Rep. Jane Saxl, D-Bangor, but even she admitted after the initial 100-48 vote that hers was a lost cause. When she passed Richard Grotton, the lobbyist for the Maine Restaurant Association, in the hall outside the House chamber, Saxl turned to him and predicted matter-of-factly: "We are going down big-time."

Other states with restaurant smoking bans are Vermont, California, Maryland and Utah.