Washington, DC, USA. Voters in Oregon and Pennsylvania chose their major-party candidates for governor on Tuesday (May 18), while Arizona’s electorate handed Governor Jan Brewer a significant victory by easily approving a temporary hike in the state sales tax.

The Arizona vote allows state lawmakers to avoid much deeper spending cuts than those already approved earlier this year — including elimination of all-day kindergarten and reduction of health care services for the poor.

The measure, which takes effect in two weeks, generates much-needed revenue by raising the sales tax by a penny per dollar, to 6.6 cents, for three years. It is expected to bring in about $1 billion per year. Notably, the outcome in Arizona runs counter to a common national narrative about 2010 being a sharply anti-tax year. While Tea Party candidates and other tax critics have claimed major wins — including in Kentucky on Tuesday night — tax hikes are two-for-two in statewide votes so far this year.

Oregon voters in January agreed to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy by $727 million, after a campaign by proponents of the measure portrayed the alternative — deep cuts to schools and other public services — as potentially catastrophic.

Similarly, threatened cuts to education “appeared to be the winning ingredient” for proponents of the Arizona sales tax hike, The Arizona Republic reported. “The Yes on 100 campaign relied heavily on appeals to the needs of schools and noted repeatedly that two-thirds of the revenue would go to education,” the paper said.

In Pennsylvania, Dan Onorato won a crowded Democratic primary for governor and will square off against Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett in November. As Stateline reported last month, Onorato will try to end a curious electoral cycle that has seen the Pennsylvania governorship alternate between Democrats and Republicans every eight years since 1954. The cycle is so well-known that, within hours of Onorato’s victory, the Democratic Governors Association put out a statement listing the reasons why 2010 could buck the trend.

In Oregon, former Governor John Kitzhaber — one of at least five ex-governors nationwide who want their old jobs back — won the Democratic primary and will face a Republican opponent in November who could not be further from a government insider. Chris Dudley, a former professional basketball player for the Portland Trailblazers, won for the Republicans.

Stateline is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news service of the Pew Center on the States that provides daily reporting and analysis on trends in state policy. TS-Si thanks The Pew Charitable Trusts for its support and cooperation.

Stateline reports are prepared and published by TS-Si.org with permission. Signed articles do not necessarily convey an official position of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates.

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