Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Tommy G. Thompson received more than $70,000 in campaign donations from the Philip Morris Cos. in the past seven years, during his term as governor of Wisconsin.

In addition, Attorney General nominee John D. Ashcroft was the only member of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee in 1998 to vote against a bill that would have curbed the marketing activities of the tobacco industry nationwide.

When Interior Secretary nominee Gale A. Norton was attorney general of Colorado, she resisted pleas to sue the tobacco industry to recover health-care costs, saying it would be costly and difficult to win.

"The tobacco industry has connections to many Cabinet nominees and to top White House advisers," said Paul Billings, a spokesman for the American Lung Association. "They will have a lot of access to this administration, and we have to wonder how that will affect administration policies. There's not much here that's encouraging to us."

In addition to Thompson, Norton and Ashcroft, political strategist Karl Rove, who will become a senior White House adviser, worked as a political consultant for Philip Morris from 1991 to 1996.

"During the last election, the tobacco industry spent millions of dollars in direct and soft money contributions, and the issue is what they want in return," said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "Since Bush was elected, the stock market has pushed up tobacco stocks dramatically. That means people think the administration will be doing their bidding."

According to the Campaign Study Group, a nonpartisan watchdog group, the tobacco industry donated $120,000 in hard and soft money to the Bush campaign in the past two years. Just recently, Philip Morris donated $100,000 for Bush's inaugural.

In addition, the National Republican Senate Committee received nearly $1.4 million from tobacco interests in the past two years.

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