Posted on 06/08/2008 4:14:12 PM PDT by george76
Ward Connerly's critics often blame the success of the millionaire businessman's anti-affirmative-action campaign on some dubious political sleight of hand.
Now they'd like to make the former UC regent's controversial initiative disappear before it reaches the ballot in five states.
Connerly's measure won handily in his home state of California and in Washington and Michigan, affecting race- or gender-based programs in public employment, education and contracting.
Connerly spearheaded California's Proposition 209 in 1996, which amended the state constitution to outlaw race and gender-based preferences in state hiring and state university admissions. His twelve-year tenure on the Board of Regents ended March 1, 2005.
He has subsequently exported his initiative — and the financing behind it — to Colorado, Nebraska, Arizona, Missouri and Oklahoma.
His opponents have embraced a pre-emptive strategy.
By challenging the petition process on sidewalks, where they claim circulators mislead people into signing, and in court, they've managed to thwart his early momentum and hope to deal a major blow to his national campaign.
The thrust of the initiative, designated Amendment 46 in Colorado, is to ban "preferential treatment" — though the wording doesn't mention affirmative action.
At present, race and gender can come into play in hiring and contracting, often through goals that seek to include qualified women- or minority-owned businesses in a pool of applicants. College admissions criteria can include race, among other factors.
Connerly, a man of mixed race who identifies himself as black, says Americans have long had doubts about the use of race-based affirmative action. He predicts he'll prevail in the Colorado court battle and also surmount challenges in Arizona and Nebraska.
"Once we qualify, it passes in a landslide,"
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
Okay, how often do you see "Obama, who is of mixed race but identifies himself as black." But because they want to make his effort less than legitimate because he's not "authentically" black, they have to indicate Connerly is mixed.
—Ward Connerly is one of those who take seriously Hubert Humphrey’s words about the Civil Rights act of ‘64 “not being about quotas”—
Opponents’ funding comes from familiar Colorado sources.
Tim Gill, Pat Stryker, Jared Polis and Merle Chambers — all high-profile contributors to Democratic and progressive causes
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_9508352
"If Connerly's successful in making this an issue for Obama, it wouldn't be the first time state ballot initiatives affected a presidential campaign. In a forthcoming study, political scientists Todd Donovan, Caroline Tolbert and Daniel A. Smith claim that in 2004, voters in the 13 states that offered anti-gay-marriage initiatives or referenda were more likely to consider that issue as being important in the presidential race, compared with voters in states with no such campaigns...."
"(Darren) Davis (a professor of political science at Notre Dame) claims, Obama's campaign tactics have, in an ironic twist, invited Connerly's challenge. "Obama himself has not attributed his success to any of the structural success [on race] in American society," Davis says. "The Obama campaign exudes this individualism and this perseverance that people who are against affirmative action have used against the African-American community."
Admitting that he and his wife were the beneficiaries of affirmative action contradicts the underlying narrative of the poor, oppressed black man in a society where he can never get ahead, since the "white man's greed runs a world in need." It's fun to see Obama dance around the issue, and Connerly's just the man to keep him dancing.
Let’s hope so :
It’s fun to see Obama dance around the issue, and Connerly’s just the man to keep him dancing.
I had lunch with Ward Connerly when he was in Colorado a few months ago. This initiative does, indeed, win every time it's voted on. Connerly is very persuasive on this. Let's get it on the ballot and 'then' argue the merits of the initiative.
OMG!!! (Oh My Goodness) The contrast between this mixed race man identifying himself as black and Barack Hussein Obama is striking!!!
Connerly was one of my first appointments in 1995 after winning election and trying to find out where all the levers of power were hidden. What a gracious individual!!!
He is a little too close to Pete Wilson to suit me and not as conservative as I would like, but it's really hard not to like the man! He's a class act!!! Very articulate and compelling in his presentations!!!
It looks good for us even though the enemedia is against us.
They have many extra signatures, so it will be hard for the democrats to throw half of them out. ( They will try to )
Good for Ward Connerly !
We hadn’t lived in WA state too long when this passed and moonbats were having fits about it, I was surprised it did pass. However, it was not a constitutional ammendment like in CA, it’s a statute.
BO needs to win Colorado in November.
This on our ballot may help us in stopping him ?
That is why the DUmmies are fighting so hard to keep it off the ballot.
Well I’m rooting for all of you Coloradoans that it does pass and BO goes down in flames.
That will be a very good day for all of us!
Sorry to ask. What’s BO?
Barack Obama
OH! Thanks.
Thanks geo.
Connerly spearheaded California's Proposition 209 in 1996, which amended the state constitution to outlaw race and gender-based preferences in state hiring and state university admissions. His twelve-year tenure on the Board of Regents ended March 1, 2005. He has subsequently exported his initiative -- and the financing behind it -- to Colorado, Nebraska, Arizona, Missouri and Oklahoma... Connerly, a man of mixed race who identifies himself as black, says Americans have long had doubts about the use of race-based affirmative action. He predicts he'll prevail in the Colorado court battle and also surmount challenges in Arizona and Nebraska. "Once we qualify, it passes in a landslide,"
” Obama’s campaign tactics have, in an ironic twist, invited Connerly’s challenge.”
BTTT!
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