I-100 And Mason In The NY TIMES

Spending Trumps Social Issues on Ballots This Time

Kevin Moloney for The New York Times

Mason Tvert, a supporter of legal marijuana in Denver, where a ballot proposal would make marijuana arrests a lower priority

In Oregon, tobacco companies have spent more than $10 million to block a measure that would increase cigarette taxes by 84.5 cents a pack. The increase would be used to pay for health care for uninsured children. Supporters of the expanded health care coverage have raised almost $1.4 million, much of the money coming from hospitals and health insurance companies, and spent about $460,000 on television advertisements. The spending by both sides has made the ballot measure the most expensive in the state’s history.

Tobacco companies have waged equally aggressive fights in recent years in California and Missouri to defeat similar measures, though one such measure passed last year in Arizona despite efforts by the companies.

In Washington State, trial lawyers and insurance companies are battling a proposal to repeal a state law that allows consumers to seek triple damages in court against nonmedical insurers that unreasonably deny claims.

Oregon voters are also deciding whether to scale back a 2004 law requiring governments to compensate landowners for any loss in value caused by land-use regulations, or to waive those regulations.

So-called wedge issues are not entirely absent from Tuesday’s tickets.

In Texas, conservatives oppose the omission of a stem cell research ban in Proposition 15, a constitutional amendment that would allow the state to borrow $300 million a year over the next decade to finance cancer research.

In Hailey, Idaho, voters are faced with four initiatives that would legalize or decriminalize marijuana and direct city officials to lobby for the passage of similar measures statewide.

In Denver, an initiative would make the private use and possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by people 21 and older the city’s lowest law-enforcement priority. Supporters of the proposed initiative, which is similar to regulations in Seattle and Missoula County, Mont., say that the police have more pressing problems and that the use of small amounts of marijuana is less harmful than alcohol to adults.

Voters in Missoula will decide on a measure calling for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. If it is passed, Missoula would join more than 200 other cities and towns that have passed similar resolutions.

Ny Times