Jumaane Williams isn’t just a city councilman. He’s also the city’s Marlboro man.
The Brooklyn lawmaker — who is a front-runner heading into the Feb. 26 special election for public advocate — has a long history of voting against measures to curb smoking and vaping in the Big Apple.
Between 2011 and 2017 Williams voted against five bills that would crack down on the deadly habit — including a successful 2011 measure to ban smoking in parks, beaches, boardwalks and pedestrian plazas.
Williams also voted twice against raising the minimum price of a pack of smokes — to $10.50 in 2013 and to $13 a pack in 2017.
And he voted “nay” against the city law that raised the minimum smoking age from 18 to 21.
For good measure, he voted against a measure in 2013 that also became law: a ban on e-cigarette vaping in all public places where tobacco smoking is prohibited.
Williams — who is not a smoker himself and has not gotten any donations from the tobacco industry — has in four instances stood to explain his vote, according to council transcripts.
He said the legislation to ban smoking in parks and other outdoor venues went too far in curbing the rights of smokers.
“The main problem I have is I do not feel we try at all to compromise between two sets of taxpayers, one of which exercise their legal right to smoke a cigarette. And I think as a council, we should try to weigh everybody’s right to do what is legal. And I feel we absolutely did not even try to do that,” Williams said on the council floor.
But former city Health Commissioner Tom Farley, who testified in support of the smoking ban during a hearing before the vote, said, “There is no risk-free level of exposure to second-hand smoke. Secondhand smoke is deadly . . . Young children are especially vulnerable because their bodies are still developing.”
Williams also argued that lifting the smoking age to 21 would be unfair to 18- to 20-year-olds, some of whom serve in law enforcement or the military.
“It is a bit hypocritical to say that we can put a gun in a young person’s arm and tell them to decide whether they should kill or be killed and then tell them that they can’t buy a pack of cigarettes,” the councilman said.
Williams’s votes against the two bills that raised the price of a pack of cigarettes dismissed evidence that such hikes cause a drop in consumption, particularly among young people.
He also objected to a provision in the pricing bill that restricts merchants’ ability to offer discount coupons for smokes.
“I’m a little concerned about delving into the commerce part when it comes to the coupons that they can use for products that are actually legal, and I wish that part was not in there,” Williams said during the Oct. 30, 2013, debate.
He called the e-cig ban a “good bill” but “rushed” and so, “I’m going to have to vote no.”
Williams was not alone in dissenting. Queens Republican Councilman Eric Ulrich, who is also running for public advocate, also voted no on all five bills.
Conversely, two other public advocate candidates — former Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Manhattan Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez — backed all five bills.
Williams did vote for other anti-smoking measures, such as the new law that bars pharmacies from selling cigarettes.
Williams had no further comment Sunday on whether he stood by or regretted his pro-smoke votes.