When asked about raising state cigarette taxes to add more children to publicly-funded health coverage, Oregon voters rejected the plan by a 59% to 41% margin.

Measure 50 would have increased Oregon's cigarette tax by 85 cents a pack. The measure went to the voters for a referendum after Democratic state legislative leaders failed to get enough support to pass the measure outright. They didn't have the three-fifths vote needed to pass revenue-raising bills in the legislature, but they did have the simple majority needed to ask voters to amend the constitution and add the cigarette tax. All they needed was a simple majority of the voters to say yes.

The measure failed in every county but one.

Supporters of Measure 50 blamed a huge advertising campaign financed by tobacco companies for its defeat. But their message must have resonated. Opponents zeroed in on four basic arguments against the tax, according to The Oregonian: They argued that there was no way to account for how the money would be spent; it was inappropriate to stick a product tax in the constitution; it was unfair to smokers; and the program was fiscally unsustainable as costs eventually would outstrip revenue.

The editorial in The New York Times yesterday was predictably scathing: "Big tobacco defeats sick kids." An editorial in The Oregonian offered a similar indictment.

But it is always a mistake to tell voters that they are stupid, which is what these editorials basically do.