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Anti-affirmative action ballot issue proposed

Measure could be the hot-button issue of '08 election cycle

David Montero, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 24, 2007 at midnight

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In its current form, it's just 37 words long, and if it is approved by the Legislative Council on Thursday, it could become the hot-button issue of the 2008 election in Colorado.

Sponsors of their self-described "civil rights initiative" launched their campaign at the Brown Palace Hotel on Monday in hopes of dismantling affirmative action in government, affecting everything from admissions to state universities to contractors submitting bids on government projects.

Flanked by Sen. Dave Schultheis and Rep. Kent Lambert, both Colorado Springs Republicans, one of the faces of the anti-affirmative action movement spoke about moving toward a colorblind society and said that the existence of affirmative action laws actually promote - rather than eliminate - race bias.

That face was Ward Connerly, chairman of the Sacramento-based American Civil Rights Institute.

Connerly, who has spent years pushing the issue, said Colorado shouldn't promote discrimination and asserted that the ballot measure "goes to the heart of who we are as a country."

He also said it was time to end what he called "double standards" for ethnic groups.

"What we're about to do - what we're setting upon a course to do - is to bring a single standard to every government agency and every village and hamlet in this country," Connerly said.

"That's what the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative is about," he said. "Passing this, the people will be joining those bluest of blue states - California, Washington, Michigan - all of which passed that language."

But Dennis Parker, director of the American Civil Liberties Union racial justice program, said race is still a major issue in America and cited the government's response to Hurricane Katrina as an example of how far society is from being colorblind.

"The significance of Katrina laid bare the fault in the argument that race doesn't matter," Parker said. "It was hard to look at that experience and say race doesn't matter in America."

The measure still has several steps to go through before it can appear on the 2008 ballot.

It is among 30 prospective ballot measures filed so far in the 2007-2008 cycle. After being heard by the Legislative Council, the measure must be approved by the Colorado secretary of state and backers then must obtain about 76,000 valid petition signatures.

Text of the ballot measure

Ballot "The state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting."

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