Yet even though the measure passed handily, Kostelic's constituents will still be able to light up in taverns and restaurants throughout his 19th district.

That's because Kostelic's district lies entirely within the city of Sun Prairie -- where the Dane County Board lacks authority to ban smoking.

The ban on smoking inside bars and restaurants will only affect Dane County's tiniest communities (called towns) and unincorporated rural areas. For most of the county, this latest smoking ban is meaningless.

Supervisors who represent Dane County's urban areas, such as Kostelic, can't keep their own constituents from smoking in restaurants and taverns. But they can unite to control the smoking habits of the county's rural residents.

Now I'm going to give Kostelic the benefit of the doubt. I'm going to assume he voted for the ban because he believes that smoking is a public health hazard and not because the ban would force rural smokers to patronize Sun Prairie's taverns.

But his vote was still wrong.

For that matter, so were the votes of almost all of the 21 supervisors who supported the ban. They drowned out the dissenting votes of the 14 rural supervisors who represent the districts where the ban will actually go into effect next August.

Just about every supervisor who supported the measure lives in and represents an urban district where this ban cannot be enforced. Kostelic's case is just the most glaring because, unlike most urban areas in Dane County, Sun Prairie doesn't have its own municipal smoking ban.

I have no problem with smoking bans in general. I have advocated for years for our state lawmakers to pull their heads out of their cigarette butts and ban smoking in every indoor public establishment across the state.

I would support a county-wide ban that applied to every town, village and city. That would provide the type of comprehensive coverage to protect smoke-free taverns from losing business to the smoky tavern up the road.

The issue here is not about the health benefits of a smoking ban. The issue is the urban progressive majority in Dane County making rules to control the behavior of the county's rural residents -- yet not having to follow those very same rules in their home districts.

It's an unpleasant fact that the Dane County Board will always be filled with enough urban supervisors to force rural residents to choke down distasteful progressive rules and regulations. But those urban supervisors should at least have to follow the same rules they are so eager to enact.

Hands, of Madison, is the State Journal's freelance editorial cartoonist. View his cartoons at madison.com/wsj/home/opinion.