Voters Reject Slew of Ballot Measures

Jerre Petersen pulls up the the ballot box near the Multnomah County Elections office Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007, in Portland, Ore. Election officials were preparing to tally mail ballots Tuesday in a special election that has drawn big spending by interest groups but a lackluster voter turnout on a cigarette tax hike and a rollback of a 2004 property rights law. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) (Rick Bowmer - AP)

Corzine, a multimillionaire, spent $200,000 of his own money on TV ads for it. He argued the funding would help find cures for conditions such as spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease, sickle cell anemia and multiple sclerosis while also luring leading scientists and research firms to the state.

But the measure was opposed by anti-abortion activists, conservatives and the Roman Catholic Church because it would pay for research that destroys human embryos and would increase state debt.

New Jersey already had approved spending $270 million to build stem cell research facilities. A brother of "Superman" actor Christopher Reeve, who promoted stem cell research after being paralyzed in a 1995 hourse riding accident, said he worried that history wouldn't judge the state well after the vote.

"One of the several thoughts central to what Christopher was about in the time after his injury was the idea that life takes courage," Benjamin Reeve said Wednesday. "To be perhaps a little tough about it, the defeat of the question doesn't seem to me the courageous thing to do."

Senate President Richard J. Codey, a leading stem cell research advocate, said the message was clear _ voters like Democrats but are worried about shaky state finances. New Jersey is the nation's fourth most indebted state and has the nation's highest property taxes.

"The message we're getting is put your fiscal house in order and then do these things," said Codey, a Democrat.

Several states are competing in the research. California previously approved spending $3 billion on stem cell research, Connecticut has a $100 million program, Illinois spent $10 million and Maryland awarded $15 million in grants.

The bonds for a cancer research center in Texas handed champion cyclist Lance Armstrong a major political victory. Some fiscal conservatives opposed the proposal.

"From the bottom of my heart I can tell you this: I have never been prouder to call myself a Texan," Armstrong, a testicular cancer survivor, told a cheering crowd. "We know that if we keep fighting we can bring an end to cancer."

Among the other measures on ballots Tuesday:

_ Voters in Streetsboro, Ohio, where a 19-year-old fell short of reaching a runoff in the May mayoral primary, raised the legal age to run for mayor or council from 18 to 23.

_ Voters in Hailey, Idaho, approved three measures to legalize medical marijuana, make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest police priority and legalize industrial hemp. They rejected an initiative that would have legalized marijuana and required the city to regulate sales.

_ Voters rejected a proposal by the Passamaquoddy Indians to operate a racetrack casino with up to 1,500 slot machines in the town of Calais, Maine, where downturns in the seafood and paper industries have made the economy the worst in the state.

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Associated Press writers Tom Hester Jr. in Trenton, N.J., Brock Vergakis in Salt Lake City, Kelley Shannon in Austin, Texas, Brad Cain in Portland, Ore., Glenn Adams in Augusta, Maine, and Joe Milicia in Cleveland contributed to this report.