Minnesota's richest and most controversial anti-tobacco group has plunged back into lobbying for smoking ban laws after a court-ordered hiatus that lasted three years, and the move has touched off a new round of public criticism.

State Rep. Tim Wilkin, R-Eagan, has resigned from the board of the Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco (MPAAT) because of the decision, announced Friday, to award grants of up to $1.5 million "to build citizen participation efforts to protect the public from exposure to second hand smoke."

Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, said that he, too, will quit the board over what he called its "tobacco jihad." Attorney General Mike Hatch, a DFLer who went to court in 2002 to stop MPAAT's earlier lobbying, also voiced displeasure, although his office said he plans no further legal efforts against the group.

"He's very troubled that state money is being used to lobby public officials," said Hatch spokeswoman Leslie Sandberg. "He feels it is a wrong use of the dollars."