Reuters: Politics: California tobacco tax vote down to the wire

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California tobacco tax vote down to the wire Jun 6th 2012, 06:56 SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Jun 6, 2012 2:56am EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A California ballot measure proposing to add a $1 tax to a pack of cigarettes was clinging to a thin lead late in the state's primary election on Tuesday night, with both supporters and critics saying the outcome was too close to call. With 42 percent of precincts reporting, 50.2 percent of voters were in favor of Proposition 29 and 49.8 percent were opposed, according to California's secretary of state. Revenue from the measure - projected to be about $735 million in its first year in effect - would mainly support medical research on tobacco-related diseases and programs to prevent and control tobacco use. The measure, championed by the American Cancer Society and cycling great Lance Armstrong, among others, had a commanding lead in polls earlier in the year. But its opponents, led by tobacco giants Altria's Philip Morris and Reynolds American Inc, the maker of Camels, spent nearly $47 million for an advertising blitz that raised doubt about how the new tax revenues would be spent, according to MapLight, a nonpartisan research group. The heavy television advertising in recent weeks has slashed support for the measure, much as an advertising campaign undermined a 2006 measure in California urging a $2.60 tax on packs of cigarettes. Voters rejected that measure. The last time California voters approved a measure to increase the state's tobacco tax was in 1998, and it only narrowly passed by 51 percent to 49 percent. (Reporting by Jim Christie; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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