Watching the Rain Fall

Disclaimer: I am a hypocrite by most measures. I didn’t vote this time. I moved in August and I forgot to re-register… until 1 day after registration closed. In my credit I did vote while I was abroad. I did the whole absentee thing.

It is an Oregon mark of the fall. Kids go back to school. High School football games. And the election time advertising starts… This year was a record year for advertising spending, apparently. And I have to say it reached a new low. when you actually have Phillip Morris paying for advertisements you know it’ll be bad. What more, apparently we listen to them.

So, Measure 50. It was an amendment to the Oregon Constitution that would have created a new tobacco tax. This tobacco tax would have helped fund health insurance for uninsured kids. Granted the measure was kinda flawed but we would have worked out the kinks… it’s kinda what we do. Make a measure, implement it then pass 4 more measures over the next 10 years to amend it because the original was kinda flawed. Of course Phillip Morris didn’t want to pay for it in lost sales so they spend 20 million on advertising in Oregon (And we’ve had to watch it… Just for that I hate them) against this measure. And as I write this 60%-ish of the votes are counted and Measure 50 is failing by 60%. OK. I get some of the objections but does anyone actually think about who is paying for the advertisement???