Initiatives to curtail affirmative action launched in 5 states

DENVER — Intent on dismantling affirmative action, activists in five states have launched a coordinated drive to cut off tax dollars for programs that offer preferential treatment based on race or gender.

The campaign aims to put affirmative-action bans on the November ballot in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The effort is being organized by California consultant Ward Connerly, who has successfully promoted similar measures in California, Michigan and Washington.

Supporters of affirmative action say the initiatives will be difficult to block, given that Connerly has a proven ability to raise funds and persuade voters, even in more liberal states.

"They've targeted states where there's a white majority electorate and a vocal, if small, extreme anti-immigrant right wing," said Shanta Driver, co-chairwoman and national spokeswoman of By Any Means Necessary, a coalition that defends affirmative action. In such states, she said, "it's extremely difficult for us to win."

Connerly's campaign — which he has called "Super Tuesday for Equality" — also could get a boost if the presidential ballot includes a black or a woman. That would help him make the case, he said, that the playing field is level and minorities no longer need a hand up.

In most states, Connerly has until spring or summer to collect enough valid signatures to put the measures on the ballot. His allies have submitted more than 140,000 signatures in Oklahoma. Petitions are circulating in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri and Nebraska. (The number of required valid signatures varies from about 76,000 in Colorado to about 230,000 in Arizona.)

If successful, the ballot measures would ban a broad range of programs designed to overcome racism and discrimination.

The wording differs slightly from state to state, but in general the measures say: "The state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any group or individual on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. ... "

Opponents say that is misleading because it doesn't explicitly say that affirmative action would be banned.

"What Ward Connerly is banking on — and it's a sad thing — is a lack of information among the public," said the Rev. Gill Ford, a regional director of the NAACP.

Connerly, who is of black, white and American Indian heritage, began fighting against racial preferences as a member of the University of California Board of Regents in the mid-1990s.

He has said he came to the issue after meeting with a white couple whose son had been rejected from several UC medical schools; they believed less-qualified minority students had an unfair edge in admissions.