Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights has launched a...

Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights has launched a letter campaign against the hostile takeover bid by Batus Inc., the nation’s third-largest cigarette company, for Farmers Group, a Los Angeles-based insurance holding company. Farmers paid $2,000 for the Berkeley-based lobbying group to print and mail flyers to all of its 6,500 California members, marking the first time that Farmers has donated to the group, director Mark Pertschuk said. The flyers ask members to write to state Insurance Commissioner Roxani M. Gillespie, asking her to disapprove the proposed acquisition.