Dolores T. Martin

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Dolores (Dee) Tremewan Martin (note not Delores) is an academic economist who has worked extensively for Big Business, including the tobacco industry, as a witness and academic lobbyist.

She was a key member of the Committee on Taxation and Economic Growth which helped large corporations and trade associations counter tax increases, and also a leading member of the Tobacco Institute's clandestine Economists' network -- a group of academics who helped the tobacco industry fight proposed tax increase on cigarettes, and tried to counter the declining acceptability of public and workplace smoking.

Dolores Martin was also a member of the Public Choice Society, and she collaborated with Roger Riefler in some tobacco activities. An associate at the University of Nebraska, Professor Craig R MacPhee, also worked for the Tobacco Institute.

 

HOW THE NETWORK WORKED

The Cash-for-Comments Economists' Network was run by Savarese through a partnership with Professor Robert D Tollison who used the staff and facilities of the Center for Study of Public Choice at George Mason University to prove cut-out and organisation services. They developed and maintained a network of Economics Professors with at least one on tap in virtually every US state. As one Professor transferred or dropped out (there was a regular turn-over) a new one would be recruited in that State. In all, about 130 university professors were involved in the period 1985-1995, and costs ran to $3 million/year at a time when professor's salaries were in the $30-40,000 pa range. An active network member at a State university could almost double his normal salary.

  The main focus of the group was to write commissioned op-ed articles on a subject determined by the Tobacco Institute. The draft article would then pass back through the network to TI staff, who were essentially public relations experts. Here they were 'improved' and refined; then sent to the Institute's outside lawyers for vetting. Modified articles then returned to the professor, who would then send them to a designated State newspaper as if they were his 'independent expert opinion'. The professors received a base amount for writing and bonuses for successfully planting the article on the newspaper. Some, but not all, received a small (eg.$1000) annual retainer.[1]]

  Published papers would also be copied by the professor and sent to his local Federal Representative and Senator (for a further bonus). Sometimes there were special commissions, but generally the work was writing op-eds and LTE's where they were paid just on results (varied from about $700 to $3000 over the years). Network members could also be called upon to provide witness services and promote the cigarette companies' political/economic line at local ordinance or State legislative hearings. An active professor of economics at a State University could almost double his salary with these activities and with some further appearances, for instance, speaking on the importance of cigarettes in economic terms at major economic conferences, etc.
      Cash for Comments Economists Network   &   Robert Tollison   &   James Savarese   &   Network Document Index

 

Academic career

  • B.S. degree in business administration from the University of Nevada
  • M.A. in economics from the University of Nevada
  • Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  • 1984 Professor in public finance, University of Nebraska
  • Since March 1, 2001 she has been the dean of the Eastern Washington University College of Business and Public Administration.

Documents & Timeline

1940 June 11: Born Elko, Nevada


1966 - 71: Assistant Professor, Radford College, Radford, Virginia [Dates as listed in her CV]


1967 June: MA (Economics) from University of Nevada


1971 -72: Instructor Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland


1973 -74: Instructor New River Community College, Dublin Virginia


1975: Associate Professor Department of Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln


1976 Jan PhD (Economics) from Virginia Polytechnic/State


1984 June Professor in Public Finance, University of Nebraska. Her C/V was sent to the Tobacco Institute in late 1984 or early 1985. [2]

Dolores Martin was a professor of economics at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln when she became involved in pro-tobacco activities for the Tobacco Institute (TI) through Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) in 1984. O&M hired her to provide anti-excise testimony.

Tobacco industry documents show that Patricia Militia from O&M reported to Michael Brozek (TI regional vice president) on June 6, 1984 that:

Dolores Martin, a public finance professor from the University of Nebraska, has agreed to deliver testimony in Minneapolis. I will have more information about her as well as her testimony in the next few days. I'll send it to you as soon as I receive it. I will also forward the testimony for the business spokesperson you identify. [3]


1984 July Two weeks later Patricia Militia wrote to Michael Kerrigan (TI Vice President)

So far, one hearing has been held in the Northern Sector: in Minneapolis on Tuesday, June 19. Dolores Martin, an economics professor at the University of Nebraska, presented testimony at that hearing. We arranged interviews for her with KSTP-AM (radio) and KSTP-TV (both are St. Paul stations). A copy of her testimony and a biographical sketch are attached.

The next hearing in your region will be in New York on Monday, June 25. Harold Hochman, an economics professor

at Baruch College of the City University of New York, will testify. [4]

Later that year long-term tobacco lobbyist and recruiter of academics, Robert D. Tollison established, with Dolores Martin and three other economists (Harold M. Hochman, Fred McChesney and Thomas E. Borcherding), the Committee on Taxation and Economic Growth which published excerpts of those five testimonies.


1978 Oct: Journal of Law and Economics: She is co-writing with Richard Wagner "The Institutional Framework for Municipal Incorporation: An Economic Analysis of Local Agency Formation Commissions in California,"


1985 Jan: Her name was on a list of economists who could "assist TI on the federal cigarette excise tax issue" [5] [6] although it was written as 'Professor Delores Martin, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska'.


1986 Apr: (Second term of Reagan Administration) In a Tobacco Institute list of April 1986, her name was still there but no longer as a professor in Nebraska.

    "Delores Martin
    Advisory [Commission] on Intergovernmental Relations
    "

[7] She now has the address of ACIR in Washington DC.

On later lists her name was gone.


1996 US Congress Handbook carries information about Democrat Rep. Anthony C Beilenson of California who is married to Doroles Martin and has 3 children. This may or may not be the same person. [8] There are no entries for Dolores Beilenson. Rep. Anthony Beilenson appears to be anti-tobacco and wanted to permanently increase the federal excise tax on cigarettes .... [9]


2001 She is the dean of the Eastern Washington University College of Business and Public Administration.


Publications

  • Barry Keating, Dolores Tremewan Martin, "Cases and Problems in Political Economy," McGraw-Hill, January 1978, ISBN 0070451737
  • Dolores Tremewan Martin, Richard E. Wagner, "The Institutional Framework for Municipal Incorporation: An Economic Analysis of Local Agency Formation Commissions in California," University of Chicago Press, October 1978
  • Harold Hochman, Thomas E. Borcherding, Robert Tollison, Fred McChesney, Dolores Martin, "... The US "Deserves to Have a Tax System Which Looks Like Someone Designed it on Purpose.", Committee on Taxation and Economic Growth, September/October 1984
  • Gary M. Anderson, Dolores T. Martin, "The Public Domain and Nineteenth Century Transfer Policy," Cato Institute, 1987
  • Robert Stein, Dolores Martin, "Contracting for Municipal Public Services," ACIR Working Paper, 1987 [10]
  • Dolores Tremewan Martin, Robert M. Stein, "An Empirical Analysis of Contracting out Local Government Services" chapter 7 in the book "Privatizing the United States Justice System", McFarland & Co, 1992, ISBN 0899507042 [11] [12]

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