Three-and-a-half years after California voters rejected a $1-per-pack increase in the state's cigarette tax, Big Tobacco and health advocates are preparing to duke it out once again over a proposed $2-per-pack hike likely to appear on next November's ballot.
But having been outspent almost 4-to-1 by tobacco companies to lose by just four-tenths of a percentage point -- the narrowest defeat of any statewide measure in California's history -- backers of the tax hike now believe they have the upper hand.