Michael Bloomberg gives $1.5 million to help save Denver's flavored tobacco ban in election

Elliott Wenzler, The Denver Post on Oct 8, 2025

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DENVER — Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the businessman and former mayor of New York City, has donated $1.5 million more to the campaign to retain Denver’s ban on flavored tobacco, helping give supporters of the ban more than four times the resources of opponents.

In the previous campaign finance reports filed in September, opponents of the ban had far outraised supporters. Bloomberg’s recent donation, disclosed in a new monthly filing this week, significantly shifts the dynamics of the Nov. 4 election, when a question about whether to retain the new ordinance will appear as Referendum 310 on the ballot.

The supporters’ campaign, “Denver Kids vs Big Tobacco,” has now received about $2 million in direct and in-kind donations through the end of September. The opposition, “Citizen Power!” — which pushed to repeal the ban — has raised nearly $470,000, according to Denver’s campaign finance dashboard.

In late 2024, the Denver City Council near-unanimously approved a ban on sales of most flavored tobacco and nicotine products after public health and children’s advocates argued the products could lure young people into a life of addiction.

Then, in March, “Citizen Power!” submitted 17,000 signatures in hopes of putting a question on the ballot to overturn the ban. The city verified that at least 9,494 of the signatures were valid, passing the threshold for a citizen’s ballot initiative — and qualifying Referendum 310 for the ballot.

A “yes” vote on the referendum supports retaining the ban, while a “no” vote is in favor of repealing it. Mail ballots will go out to voters starting Friday.

“Citizen Power!” has argued that the ban will hurt small businesses in Denver, deprive adults of choices and eliminate millions of dollars in sales tax revenue for the city.

Bloomberg earlier donated $73,500 to the campaign to keep the ban in August. Other contributors to the “Denver Kids vs. Big Tobacco” campaign include the anti-smoking group Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund, which has donated more than $351,000, and the health care company Kaiser Permanente, which has donated $50,000.

Bloomberg is a staunch opponent of tobacco and has dedicated $1.6 billion to fighting tobacco use across the world, according to Bloomberg Philanthropies.

“Citizen Power!” has received donations from tobacco interests and vape store advocates, including $172,700 from the Rocky Mountain Smoke Free Alliance, a vaping industry trade association; $75,000 each from the tobacco company Philip Morris International and Altria Client Services, which is part of another tobacco company; and $12,500 from Swisher International.

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