Anti-affirmative action measure in the works

David Montero, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, April 23, 2007

In its current form, it's 37 words and, if it gets approved by the legislative council 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 Monday morning in hopes of dismantling affirmative action in government — including everything from admissions to state universities to contractors submitting bids to do work for government.

Flanked by State Sen. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, and State Rep. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, the face of the anti-affirmative action movement spoke about moving toward a color blind society and that the existence of affirmative action laws actually promotes race bias instead of eliminating them.

Ward Connerly, chairman of the Sacramento-based American Civil Rights Institute, said the state shouldn't promote discrimination and that this 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. Passing this, the people will be joining those bluest of blue states — California, Washington, Michigan — all of which passed that language ... this is not some marginal initiative that is asking people to do something to turn back the clock on civil rights or racial progress."

But Dennis Parker, director of racial justice program of the American Civil Liberties Union, 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 color blind.

"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. After being heard by the legislative council, it also has to be approved the the Colorado Secretary of State and the backers must obtain about 76,000 signatures.

Valery Pech Orr, who is helping launch the campaign for the ballot measure, said her group is going to try to get 120,000 signatures for it to qualify.