SALEM, Ore. -- Polls closed Tuesday on two special election measures that have drawn big spending by interest groups.

Measure 50 was being rejected by a margin of 60 percent to 40 percent. Among Oregon's 36 counties, the cigarette tax passed only in populous Multnomah County, but was crushed in most other places.

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Measure 49 was passing. Results followed a clear geographical split, with urban counties favoring it and many rural counties opposing it.

Measure 49 was referred to the voters by the Legislature to fix the property rights law known as Measure 37, which voters adopted overwhelmingly after decades of anger and resentment over land use laws that won Oregon a green reputation.

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After a campaign marked by record amounts of tobacco industry money pouring into TV advertising, the ballots were being counted Tuesday on Measure 50, a cigarette tax increase to pay for an expansion of children's health care.

 Election day: Complete coverage

 Blog: Election night analysis

Campaign contributions for and against the two ballot measures have soared to $22.3 million, well ahead of the amount spent on 10 initiatives on the November 2006 ballot.

 More: REAL TIME results (Mult. Co.)

The biggest chunk of spending is the nearly $12 million that the tobacco industry has poured into the campaign to try to kill Measure 50, the 84.5 cent-a-pack cigarette tax hike to pay for children's health insurance.

Sarah Wetherson, an analyst with the election watchdog group Democracy Reform Oregon, said no one should be surprised by that amount, given that the tobacco industry spent millions to defeat cigarette taxes in California and Missouri last year.

"The have the ability to spend the money, and the self interest, and so they do," Wetherson said.

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Despite the tobacco industry's lopsided financial advantage and the flood of ads it has put on Oregon's airwaves, Measure 50 backers said they are not giving up on the cigarette tax plan to extend coverage to 100,000 uninsured Oregon children.

"We've got something the tobacco industry can't buy -- and that's volunteers, out on the streets, knocking on doors, and calling Oregon voters. And they are going to keep doing that until 8 p.m. Tuesday," said Cathy Kaufmann, spokeswoman for the Health Kids campaign.

Though not quite as well-funded, the campaigns for and against Measure 49, the property rights revision, have produced a sizable number of TV ads as well.

Conservation groups are backing Measure 49. They say it would protect Oregon's open spaces by scaling back the 2004 property rights law that requires governments to let people use their land however they could have when they bought it or pay for lost value.

But opponents of Measure 49, which would allow rural landowners to build a few homes -- three in most cases -- but curb larger developments, say it thwarts the will of voters who approved the 2004 law.