Connerly Hopes to Gain Support of Both Bushes

By JO BECKER

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush has made it clear that he wants nothing to do with California businessman Ward Connerly's efforts to end affirmative action in Florida, warning that the fight over Connerly's proposed ballot initiative would set up a "bitter political campaign" that "divides Florida by race or ethnicity."

But his brother, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, has asked for Connerly's help in raising money for his presidential campaign and will attend two fundraisers chaired by Connerly in California later this month.

George W. Bush is "an admirer of Ward Connerly's," his presidential campaign spokesman, David Beckwith, said Thursday. "He's a man with strong convictions and the courage of those convictions."

On the eve of George W. Bush's first trip through Florida today as a presidential candidate, Connerly, a black Republican, was in Tallahassee to gin up support for his ballot initiative. He told a gathering of the city's Tiger Bay Club Thursday that he had chosen Florida for one primary reason: "It's the state that is the back yard of the presumptive nominee of the Republican party and I want this to be a presidential issue."

To achieve that goal and to persuade Floridians to ban affirmative action, Connerly made clear that he hopes to play the two brothers off one another.

Earlier this month in New Castle, N.H., George W. Bush said, "I am against quotas and racial preferences." But he refused to say whether he supports or opposes ballot initiatives such as the two Connerly pushed through in Washington and California or the one he is pushing in Florida.

Connerly said Thursday that George W. Bush's remarks did not go far enough. Connerly urged the Texas governor to join Republican presidential candidates Steve Forbes, Lamar Alexander and Dan Quayle in saying he supports efforts to end affirmative action -- and to lean on Florida's governor.

"If George comes around to that point of view, then I would urge him to bring his brother around," Connerly said.

Connerly is pushing four ballot initiatives to change Florida's constitution. Three would bar the state from treating people "differently based on race, color, ethnicity or national origin in public education, contracts or employment." A fourth would add gender. If Connerly can get about 45,000 signatures, it is up to the Florida Supreme Court to determine which, if any, are constitutional and may be placed on the 2000 ballot.

Beckwith, George W. Bush's spokesman, said the Texas governor has not yet taken a position on Connerly's ballot initiative in Florida or elsewhere, but added. "It's up to the individual states, that's basically his position."

Jeb Bush has said that he opposes Connerly's initiative but that he also opposes quotas and racial preferences and will review the state's affirmative action policies.

The Florida Republican Party has gone further, cautioning its donors against giving to Connerly's campaign. They worry that his campaign will energize traditionally Democratic black voters.

"Ward Connerly understands Florida as well as Hillary Clinton understands New York," said Lisa Gimbel, a spokeswoman for the Florida Republican party.

Connerly said Thursday that the party is out of touch with its base. "In the interest of increasing their number of black voters from 6 percent to 10 percent, they are pandering to them and forgetting about the 80 percent rest of us."

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles Thursday, Vice President Al Gore attacked critics of affirmative action, saying it's not time to abandon "special efforts" that have achieved progress.

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Carl Gutiérrez-Jones
Department of English
University of California, Santa Barbara
e-mail: carlgj@humanitas.ucsb.edu