Affirmative action critic trying to end policies in state

Lincoln Journal Star ^ | 10-13-2007 | KEVIN ABOUREZK

[stan_sipple]

A prominent affirmative-action critic is targeting Nebraska as one of five states where he hopes to get voters to decide in November 2008 to end the use of racial, ethnic and gender preferences by public colleges and state and local agencies.

Ward Connerly, founder of the American Civil Rights Institute, has begun an effort to put an initiative on the Nov. 4, 2008, ballot in Nebraska that would ban the state from granting preferential treatment to people based on race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin. The initiative would affect the areas of public employment, public education and public contracting.

Connerly said the ACRI has hired National Ballot Access of Lawrenceville, Ga., to gather signatures for the ballot initiative and plans to submit petition language to the state for review within three weeks.

He said he hopes to have petition circulators working to get signatures within 45 days in Nebraska.

“I think by the end of the year, certainly, we will be on the streets … gathering signatures,” he said.

In addition to Nebraska, Connerly is targeting Arizona, Colorado, Missouri and Oklahoma as states that would consider ballot measures ending state preferential treatment in November 2008.

He said he is focusing on those states because they seem like states that would pass such measures and because of the ease with which measures can be put on ballots in those states.

Of those states, only Colorado lacks a history of social conservatism, though that state has a large conservative minority that has managed to win key ballot victories in recent decades, according the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Connerly and his supporters have been able to get similar measures passed in other states, though they’ve often had to struggle with legal questions regarding their petition language.

Last month, they won a legal victory in Colorado when the state supreme court narrowly upheld language of a proposed Colorado Civil Rights Initiative in the face of opposition from affirmative-action supporters, according to the Chronicle.

Three states — California, Michigan and Washington — already have passed such bans. And in Florida, former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush curtailed affirmative-action preferences in state government through a 1999 executive order and persuaded the governing board of the state’s universities to follow suit, the Chronicle stated.

With so many states ending affirmative-action practices, it only makes sense other states should follow suit, Connerly said.

“I think it’s appropriate for Nebraska to join the growing American family that says we don’t want race to be used,” he said.

If Connerly and his supporters tie their ballot initiative to the issue of illegal immigration, a tactic they have used successfully elsewhere, they are likely to find responsive voters, said John R. Hibbing, professor of political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

He said the divisive nature of that issue was demonstrated last year when former U.S. Rep. Tom Osborne faced Gov. Dave Heineman in the race for governor.

Voters appeared to react negatively when Osborne showed support for a program that offered in-state tuition to children of illegal immigrants, Hibbing said.

“That was not something that was politically popular in many parts of the state,” he said.

However, it may be difficult to get Nebraska voters to want to end efforts to increase diversity within state institutions, he said. Nebraskans seem favorable toward helping women and minorities in Nebraska, though they also seem unfavorable toward hindering opportunities for white males.

“Everyone wants to go to heaven without dying,” Hibbing said, referring to the desires of some to help women and minorities without the political backlash that often accompanies such efforts.

Connerly said the petition would offer language that would provide exemptions to state agencies that would allow them to offer preferential treatment in special circumstances.

For example, female college sports teams would continue to be allowed to require its members to be female. Also, state programs that are required to abide by federal law in order to use federal money would be exempt.

Mike McCrory, personnel director for the state of Nebraska, said the state currently does not offer preferential treatment based on race, ethnicity or gender, though it is required by federal law to give preference in certain situations to disabled veterans.

However, the state is prohibited from discriminating against anyone.

“The state does not discriminate,” he said. “We want the best qualified people.”

UNL officials could not be contacted Friday to comment on Connerly’s proposal.

Neil Erickson, deputy secretary of state for elections, said Connerly has until July 4, 2008, to submit petitions to the Secretary of State’s Office for review.

Connerly said he is confident he will succeed in getting the issue on the November 2008 ballot and getting voters to pass it in Nebraska.

“I think the chances are extremely good,” he said. “People in Nebraska are basic Americans who believe in the principle of fairness.”

Judi Morgan gaiashkibos, executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, said she believes Nebraska voters see value in efforts to improve diversity within state institutions and would not pass such a measure.

“I’d like to think that Nebraskans would do the right thing when given the opportunity,” she said.

[secretagent]

Sounds good to me. I don’t want government segregating people into racial categories.

[stan_sipple]

of course the usual suspects already are dumping on it