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Measure 50 was supposed to give voters a choice between cheaper cigarettes and expanded health care programs, mostly for low-income kids.

But a record-setting ad blitz by the tobacco industry helped reframe the debate into one over the sanctity of Oregon’s constitution, which would have been amended by the measure to include a higher tobacco tax.

In the end, that strategy worked.

Measure 50 was failing Tuesday, with voters rejecting the proposed cigarette tax increase by a 53 percent-to-47 percent margin.

In Central Oregon, the margin of defeat was even greater, with more than 60 percent of voters rejecting the tax hike.

“The concerns about the constitution pulled us even, and allowed us to make other arguments,” said J.L. Wilson, a business industry lobbyist and spokesman for the tobacco-backed Oregonians Against the Blank Check Committee.

“But at the end of the day it was a fairness issue and a lack of sustainability issue. I think Oregonians are rejecting picking on one convenient section of population for a program like this.”

The measure would have raised an estimated $386 million over the next four years, but from a minority of the population.

The latest figures from the Oregon Department of Human Services show that fewer than one in five Oregonians now smokes, and that number is dropping. However, statistics from the federal Centers for Disease Control also show that cigarette taxes don’t cover the medical and lost productivity costs caused by smoking.

Tuesday’s loss hands a stinging defeat to Democrats and Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who sent the so-called Healthy Kids Plan to voters as a way to provide health coverage to more than 100,000 uninsured Oregon children. Initially, polls showed it would pass comfortably.

The defeat also deals a blow to efforts to expand health care to all Oregonians, because part of the proceeds would have provided 10,000 now-uncovered adults with subsidized care.

“The governor is saying that this is not a vote about whether Oregonians want health care for kids,” said Kulongoski spokeswoman Patty Wentz. “It’s a vote you get when the tobacco industry puts in $12 million, and it will not change the fact that health care for kids is his top priority.”

The spending for and against the measure set a new high-water mark for campaign contributions in Oregon. Tobacco companies poured $12 million into Oregon to oppose it. Proponents, which included the American Cancer Association, hospitals and labor unions, combined to spend $3.4 million.

“It was unprecedented,” said Cathy Kaufmann, manager for the Healthy Kids Oregon campaign. “That $12 million was twice as much as you need to confuse Oregon voters.”

The plan would have raised cigarette taxes by 84.5 cents, to $2.03 per pack, which is the same level as Washington state.

In addition to more money for health coverage, the plan also would have increased spending on tobacco prevention programs.

With the defeat of Measure 50, the biggest winners were smokers, the tobacco industry — which risked sales declines because of higher prices — and also Republicans, who successfully blocked the Healthy Kids Plan during the 2007 session.

State Rep. Gene Whisnant, R-Sunriver, said the plan was wrongheaded because it is not fair to raise taxes on smokers — who are generally poorer and less educated than the population as a whole — to pay for children’s health care.

He said Republicans are willing to support children’s health care, but not to raise taxes for it.

“It was a bad bill,” he said. “This demonstrates the ability of the Democratic leadership to push a bill the public could not support.”

Unable to muster the needed three-fifths majority for tax increases, the Democrat-led assembly in June steered the cigarette tax proposal to the ballot.

But lawmakers took the controversial approach of proposing a constitutional amendment, which took just a bare majority vote. Even some supporters said they were squeamish about putting a cigarette tax in the constitution — even though that document has been repeatedly muddied over the years by other ballot initiatives.

“As we go forward in this state, I am hopeful that citizens will carefully consider what constitutional amendments they are voting on,” said Sen. Ben Westlund, D-Tumalo, who supported the measure.

Still, he said, “children have a constitutional right to health care.”

He said it is too soon to say what the next step will be and whether the issue could resurface during the month-long legislative session planned for February.

“It is mere hours after the election, and it is too soon to tell what the appetite of the Legislature will be at this point,” he said. “But unquestionably, there are many of us that will not give up the fight, and not just for children but for all Oregonians.”

A higher tobacco tax was seen not just as a way to raise more taxes, but also as a tool to persuade people to cut down on the unhealthy habit.