In what the New York Times is calling “a stunning defeat,” voters in New Jersey rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed the state to borrow $450 million over 10 years to fund stem cell research. The Star-Ledger reports that the defeat doesn’t seem so much about stem cells as it is about voter frustration over the state’s fiscal condition. The measure had been opposed by conservatives, anti-abortion groups and the Roman Catholic Church. Said the head of New Jersey Right to Life to the AP, “This was an ill-conceived plan from the beginning. In the end, New Jersey citizens saw through this loan-to-clone scheme and soundly rejected it.”