Des Mojnes, IA -  Iowa Governor Chet Culver likely will sign a statewide smoking ban into law on Tuesday.  That's word today from spokesman Brad Anderson. 

The governor’s office is expecting a large crowd for the formal signing ceremony.  Right now it is tentatively scheduled tol be held in the Statehouse Rotunda.

“It’s going to be a big day,” Anderson said.

Both chambers of the Iowa Legislature moved quickly Tuesday to approve a statewide public smoking ban with various exemptions for casinos, hotels and private clubs with no employees. 

When Culver ran for governor in 2006, he said he preferred letting local governments set their own smoking restrictions. But Iowa lawmakers, spurred in part by a national move to stamp out smoking in public places, went further than local control by approving the statewide ban this week.

The ban includes restaurants, bars, workplaces and most other public spaces and will go into effect July 1.