New Jersey, Texas Weigh In on Health Care Measures
Voters in New Jersey rejected a measure to borrow $450 million over 10 years to finance stem cell research, a plan strongly advocated by Gov. Jon Corzine (D), the AP/Houston Chronicle reports (Danborn, AP/Houston Chronicle, 11/7). The measure was defeated by a 53% to 47% margin (Chen, New York Times, 11/7).
The funding would have been used to provide grants for research conducted in new state-of-the-art facilities, for which the state Legislature recently approved $270 million, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer (Panaritis, Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/7).
Abortion-rights opponents and the Roman Catholic Church opposed the measure because they said it would fund research that destroys human embryos.
Lili Stainton, a spokesperson for Corzine, said of the vote, "The public understands the state has serious financial issues that must be addressed first" (AP/Houston Chronicle, 11/7).
Voters approved up to $3 billion in bonds over 10 years to create a cancer research center, a measure advocated by cyclist and testicular cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, the AP/Chronicle reports (AP/Houston Chronicle, 11/7).
According to the Dallas Morning News, more than 60% of voters supported the measure (Jacobson, Dallas Morning News, 11/7).
The executive committee of the Harris County Republican Party and the Young Conservatives of Texas objected to the initiative, saying that it was too risky to add $300 million per year in spending to the state's budget when it might not "make much of a difference in the multibillion-dollar war against cancer," according to the Houston Chronicle (Robison, Houston Chronicle, 11/7).