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Affirmative-action foe eyes five state ballots

BY TOM BRUNE | tom.brune@newsday.com

March 24, 2008

WASHINGTON - During a year when Americans for the first time will have a chance to vote for a major candidate who is black or a woman, Ward Connerly wants to force a debate on affirmative action.

Connerly, who has won bans on government use of race and gender preferences with voter initiatives in California, Washington and Michigan, is trying to place similar measures on the November ballot in five crucial swing states. "It forces the candidates either to run and hide from it, or it forces them to confront it," Connerly said. "The more that people talk about it, the more my position stands to benefit."

But it is not certain that Connerly will succeed in his drive in the states he has targeted - Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma - because liberal groups are fighting the initiatives at every step.

Advocates for affirmative-action policies that boost minorities and women said that Connerly, a California businessman, is attempting to create a wedge issue to split off white voters for Republicans.

"It's really unfortunate," said Hilary Shelton, Washington director for the NAACP. "He has a standard operating procedure that is disturbing."

Shelton said Connerly uses loaded words such as "preferences" and "quotas" to describe affirmative action. Connerly claims he only wants to return to the language of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Affirmative action is not an issue that the presidential contenders mention on their Web sites or in speeches.

In statements, both Democratic candidates, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, said they support affirmative action. Two years ago, Obama taped an ad against Connerly's successful initiative in Michigan.

Obama, however, has taken a position that Connerly said gives him hope that Obama will base affirmative action on income, not just race.

When asked in an interview if his young daughters should receive affirmative action, Obama said that "my daughters should probably be treated by any [college] admissions officer as folks who are pretty advantaged."

His campaign also said, "Obama believes that low-income applicants of all backgrounds should also benefit from affirmative-action-like policies where their class is considered."

A statement by Republican John McCain's campaign said he opposes "affirmative-action plans or quotas that give weight to one group of Americans at the expense of another."

But he has a mixed record in Congress, rejecting and supporting affirmative-action policies in different Senate votes.

Shelton considers him "open-minded" on affirmative action.

Still, McCain scored mostly under 30 percent in ratings on key votes by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. Clinton and Obama scored from 90 percent to 100 percent.