Affirmative-Action Foe Gets 43,000 Signatures

By BRAD BENNETT
Miami Herald Staff Writer

July 31, 1999

In the race to ban affirmative action in Florida, Ward Connerly is racking up the wins, while his opponents have barely moved past the starting line.

The conservative black businessman from California announced Friday that, in just four months, he has gathered more than the 43,000 petition signatures needed to get his anti-affirmative action measure before the Florida Supreme Court.

That number of signatures from registered Florida voters would allow the measure to be considered for the November 2000 election.

``Certainly, this is a milestone, and it's certainly a first step,'' said Jim Kane, editor of Florida Voter Magazine, a nonpartisan publication. ``But it's still a long ways from them being successful.''

Opponents of Connerly's movement -- including government officials, leaders of the state NAACP and its Fort Lauderdale and Miami-Dade branches, plus the National Organization for Women and others -- gathered in Fort Lauderdale Friday to discuss strategies to combat the anti-affirmative action crusade.

The Florida Democratic Party issued a statement opposing Connerly's measure.

``It is never the right time to turn back the clock of progress,'' Florida Democratic Party Chairman Charles Whitehead said in a written statement released at Friday's meeting. ``We will fight any action that threatens true opportunity for all Floridians or allows the vestiges of discrimination to flourish.''

State Republicans, including Gov. Jeb Bush, also have opposed Connerly's efforts.

But Connerly and his supporters will be well on their way to victory if the high court approves his ballot title and language in coming months.

Then, they would need to gather more than 435,000 signatures by Aug. 1, 2000 to get the measure on the November 2000 ballot.

``We are confident we'll soon be on the ballot in 2000,'' said Herb Harmon, senior advisor for the Florida Civil Rights Initiative, the group that is overseeing the gathering of signatures. ``We're taking all the steps appropriate to accomplish that.''

Connerly's supporters are paying workers up to $1.50 per signature on petitions seeking to ban preferences based on race and gender. The preference ban would apply to state and local government contracts, as well as university admissions.

If Connerly does get his measured approved for the ballot, it is likely to pass, Kane said.

``I think among many white voters, this bill . . . will be more likely to pass than to fail,'' he said.

Supporters of affirmative action still are trying to fire up volunteers to convince people not to sign the petitions -- or at least not to vote for the measure if it does hit the ballot.

NAACP counterattack

During a meeting on Friday, NAACP officials conceded that Connerly probably would get the measure on the ballot.

But they resolved to develop their own ballot measure that would preserve affirmative action.

In seeking to fight Connerly's measure, already successful in California and Washington state, the NAACP is mounting a statewide grass-roots education effort that includes other advocacy groups for minorities and women.

The coalition, named Floridians Representing Equality and Equity, or FREE, includes the Florida chapters of the National Organization for Women, the National Bar Association, the Hispanic Bar Association, the Florida Association of Minority Business Enterprises, and others.

FREE has held several meetings in various parts of the state, and on Friday came to the Fort Lauderdale campus of Florida Atlantic University to spread its message.

NOW leaders spoke of joining the NAACP in planning a ballot countermeasure. The women's group also plans to picket the offices of contractors who have given financial support to the anti-affirmative action campaign.

FREE leaders spoke of education campaigns in barber shops, hair salons, churches, street corners and everywhere else to encourage voters not to approve Connerly's measure by word of mouth.

Limited funds so far

But, they say, it will be an uphill battle.

So far, FREE has raised only $3,500 for the campaign -- although the state and national NAACP have pledged another $60,000, state NAACP president Leon Russell said.

Connerly has raised more than $100,000 in his campaign, mainly from contractors who want to end preference programs.

``We've got to battle Ward Connerly with a lot less than what Ward Connerly has to battle us,'' said Roosevelt Walters, president of the Fort Lauderdale branch of the NAACP.

The biggest challenge is educating voters that although Connerly's measure seems to espouse civil rights, it actually would limit opportunities for minorities and women in government contracts and public university admissions, FREE leaders said.

``We've got to organize people to get the word out,'' said Adora Obi Nweze, president of the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP.

Connerly's campaign, however, is far beyond talk.

``We have gathered the required signatures necessary to place this issue before the [state] Supreme Court,'' said Harmon, senior advisor for the Florida Civil Rights Initiative.

Some affirmative-action foes are continuing to gather signatures ``to ensure that we have the full number needed,'' Harmon said. Supporters are expecting some petitions to be thrown out with signatures that are illegible or cannot be verified.

When the group decides it has enough signatures -- possibly as many as 55,000 -- it will turn them over to local supervisors of elections spanning from Jacksonville to Miami, where the signatures were gathered.

The elections supervisors will verify the signatures, and turn them over again to the Secretary of State's office for review, Harmon said.

The Secretary of State will hand them over to the Attorney General's Office for a final review before they are sent on to the state Supreme Court, Harmon said.

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