Effort to Ban Affirmative Action in Disarray Effort to Ban Affirmative Action in Disarray
Detroit Free Press
http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm19384_20040416.htm
By Dawson Bell and Ruby L. Bailey, Free Press Staff Writers
Fri, Apr 16 , 2004
Plagued by legal challenges, money woes and organizational dysfunction, the campaign to ask Michigan voters in November to end race and gender preferences is close to collapse.
Although officially still active, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative has lost its campaign manager, been declared "temporarily suspended" by its treasurer and "dead in the water" by a co-chair of its steering committee.
Ward Connerly, the businessman and activist who is trying to replicate successful ballot proposals he promoted in California and Washington, said Friday that he remains committed to the effort to put the issue before voters.
But Connerly, who is expected to be the organizational and fundraising force behind MCRI, has been ill and unable to spend as much time as hoped in Michigan or working on the campaign.
"There's no question right now that we are dead in the water," said state Rep. Jack Brandenburg, R-Harrison Township, a co-chair of the campaign steering committee.
Leonard Schwartz, an Oakland County attorney and treasurer of MCRI, wrote this week in an online newsletter of the Libertarian Party of Michigan (www.lpmich.org) that the campaign was suspended while backers awaited the outcome of legal challenges by its opponents.
Connerly said neither Schwartz nor former campaign manager Tim O’Brien speak for the campaign. He said internal disagreements are not uncommon but don’t have to be crippling.
"I have been involved with several statewide campaigns. There hasn’t been one where there haven’t been a host of problems," Connerly said.
He acknowledged that a variety of factors have combined to lengthen the already long odds that the proposal will be presented to voters in 2004.
He and others associated with the campaign said they are committed to ending race and gender preferences in government hiring, contracting and university admissions, and agreed that if the 2004 effort falls short they will try to regroup for the 2006 ballot.
Former campaign manager Tim O'Brien, who left his post earlier this week, said Friday: "We're in a bad place. For a couple of reasons it just doesn't look good.
"In the long run, we're going to stop the government from discriminating against people based on race and gender."
Earlier this week, campaign officials acknowledged they had collected fewer than 100,000 signatures. They need to collect 317,000 by July 6 to qualify for the November general election ballot.
Contact DAWSON BELL at 313-222-6604 or dbell@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2004 Detroit Free Press Inc.
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