Cigarettes, Cancer and Ballot-Box Budgeting

Proposition 29 on the June 5 ballot would raise California's tax on cigarettes by a dollar a pack. The cigarette industry is prepared to outspend supporters by 10 to one. Since cigarettes are a leading cause of deadly diseases, the spokeswoman in one TV commercial against it might be a surprise: she's Dr. La Donna Porter, a family practitioner in Stockton and Sacramento, who helped defeat another anti-smoking measure in California in 2006.