SFGate
Victor Merina
Thursday, February 5, 2009
As President Obama prepares to take the first policy steps of his administration, some Obama watchers are eager to hear what the president has to say about an issue that may prove tricky for the first African American to occupy the Oval Office: affirmative action. Among those listening is Ward Connerly, the former University of California regent who can match his multiracial background with the biracial Obama.
To his many detractors, Connerly is the villainous arch-enemy of affirmative action who has helped decrease minority admissions to public universities and undermined public contracting programs in states where he has taken his political campaigns to the electorate.
To his followers, he is the champion of equality who wants to do away with racial preferences and is determined to dismantle affirmative action programs, state by state.
Connerly's scorecard on election day was mixed. In Nebraska, voters approved an anti-affirmative action initiative, 58 to 42 percent. Colorado voters, meanwhile, spurned their version of the measure by a margin of 33,000 votes among the 2.1 million cast.
In Colorado, Connerly attributes his loss to a slew of other initiatives that confused voters. He also says the heavy turnout of Obama supporters helped reject what was formally dubbed Amendment 46. His opponents, however, say voters learned about the benefits of affirmative action and rejected the stealth tactics of Connerly and his supporters.
In the end, it was a rare loss for Connerly. He had triumphed with similar measures in the past - Proposition 209 in California, Initiative 200 in Washington state and Proposal 2 in Michigan - along with Initiative 424 in Nebraska last November.
So what does that bode for the future in the battle over affirmative action? The answer may be shaped by the new president, who criticized Sen. John McCain for backing the Connerly proposals but also signaled he may be open to a socioeconomic basis for any preferential treatment.
Full Commentary: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/04/EDK215MGDL.DTL
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