A NECSEMA Transparency Project
Public records obtained under G.L. c. 66, § 10
The town count offered in support of that goal was padded. Pelham’s resolution was, in the coordinator’s words, “a one-off orchestrated by a Belchertown Board member who had a friend on the Board in Pelham. They have no stores so we weren’t really paying attention… since they would be included in our town-count.” Pelham has no tobacco retailers.
The campaign also reached into the State House. In July 2025 a staff member in a Senate office forwarded a legislative hearing notice to the Melrose coordinator and asked her to distribute it to advocates; youth advocates and four Children’s Hospital physicians then testified. That same month the network chartered a confidential, invitation-only steering committee styled “Massachusetts Project Sunset” to “organize written and oral testimony before government bodies.” Its members “agree to keep confidential the workings of the Committee,” and membership “does not require or indicate that the individual’s organization supports the goals of the Committee.”
Project Sunset is a program of Action on Smoking and Health, which publishes the municipal adoption tally at projectsunset.ash.org — the same count cited as evidence of local demand.
Each exhibit gives the quotation, the speaker and the date, sourced to the public records production in which it appears.
“I think it would be helpful if I share with you the names of some of the ‘Dream Team’, (that’s my label for them)… the goal is to have NFG become state law: Mark Gottlieb, Kate Silbaugh, Anthony Ishak, Jonathan Winickoff, Ginny Chadwick, Jeanne MacDonald, Michael Chou, Anthony Chui…”
Maureen Buzby to Doris Cullen, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, December 20, 2024.
“It was a one-off orchestrated by a Belchertown Board member who had a friend on the Board in Pelham. They have no stores so we weren’t really paying attention… since they would be included in our town-count.”
Maureen Buzby to Mary Brush, Massachusetts DPH, January 22, 2025. Pelham has no tobacco retailers.
“The [Massachusetts Project Sunset] steering committee … is an ad hoc group of volunteers … to advance endgame measures … in particular Nicotine-Free Generation laws. The Committee will … organize written and oral testimony before government bodies. … Membership in the Committee is by invitation only. … Individual membership in the Committee does not require or indicate that the individual’s organization supports the goals of the Committee. … Members agree to keep confidential the workings of the Committee.”
“MA NFG Committee concept note,” July 22, 2025.
In July 2025 a staff member in a State Senate office forwarded a legislative hearing notice to the Melrose coordinator and asked her to distribute it to advocates.
Youth advocates and four Children’s Hospital physicians testified.
“Re: Bloomberg — we’ve been working on them… There’s a plan in place with ASH, WHO, UICC and The Union to gently move them along… All of their funding in the U.S. is funneled through CTFK.”
Chris Bostic, Action on Smoking and Health, “Early meeting of TFG Brain Trust,” July 16, 2025. A September 2025 message dispatched members to file template letters into a town council hearing in Ross, California, “so they know they are part of a national and global effort.”
“The more localities that pass this policy, the pressure it puts on the state to pass a statewide NFG bill.”
Ken Elstein, Belchertown Board of Health member, presenting to the Northampton Board of Health, February 20, 2025.