My favorite part of the election evening: Seeing supporters of both Measure 49 and Measure 50 light up smokes long after the results were (un)officially called. Hey, look, even if M50 didn’t pass, you all earned a smooth, refreshing drag from a full-flavored tobacco product.

Second favorite part of the evening: Seeing scantily clad Kennedy School guests enter and leave the “Soaking Pool,” which happened to be next to the gym where the Yes on 49 party was happening. That includes dude who waltzed in wearing swim trunks, and left wearing only a small towel.

Third favorite part (actually, my first favorite) was the armchair quarterbacking that began as soon as the election results started pouring in. Everyone agreed that the M49 campaign was a resounding success—it’s hard not to, given its massive win at the ballot. But many people agreed that the M50 campaign was lacking, especially in the door-to-door canvassing department.

M49, the argument goes, had spent months building grassroots support, by tapping rural Oregonians and visiting voters door to door. Plus, proponents had the benefit of leaning on supporters, like 1,000 Friends of Oregon, who’d previously worked to try to defeat Measures 7 and 37. The pro-land-use efforts had built up a community, even if it hadn’t had much success in the past few years.

It’s more difficult to create and sustain a political community over a tobacco tax, however. Interestingly, the only Get Out The Vote canvassers who came to my door were for Measure 50. They came at least twice.

But here’s what’s interesting: Measure 50 was originally proposed as a ballot measure in 2006—in fact, it was one of then-Republican Ben Westlund’s proposals at the Bus Project’s Rebooting Democracy confab in January of last year. (It was on the list of his “Policy-Palooza of Progressive Initiatives”.) Had it gone forward as a ballot initiative, it would have had months of a public campaign during the signature gathering period, and had solid support from the grassroots and the elected officials who were backing it. Alas, that idea, along with all of the progressive ballot measures in 2006, took a back seat to a liberal campaign of getting Dems elected to the legislature and fighting back conservative ballot measures.

Obviously, it’s now time to start rethinking the approach to children’s health care. I propose a tax on fast food and/or soda—the health effects are (arguably) as bad as smoking, but at least children can be considered consumers of the products that will fund their health coverage.