Mister Connerly Comes to Florida
Duryea, Bill
MISTER CONNERLY Ward Connerly wants to end racial preferences in a key state. Fearing a backlash, Jeb Bush and other Republicans think he should stay in California. Are they right? • BILL DURYEA...
...More than 8o percent of the 603 people surveyed favored abolishing preferences, including a surprising 79 percent of blacks, 8o percent of Hispanics, and 8z percent of women...
...There's nothing wrong with helping people who have been economically disadvantaged," Connerly said...
...In 1996, the Los Angeles Times did an exit poll on 209 that asked voters if they supported affirmative action for minorities and women...
...Don't Lose 40% Or More Of Your Retirement Plan To Taxes And Penalties...
...It is no accident, Connerly will acknowledge, that the words "affirmative action" do not appear in the language...
...I was impressed...
...Of course, such a measure would do nothing, he said, to end discriminationagainst black people, only to end preferences that have helped them...
...BILL DURYEA • The reception Ward Connerly got in Florida earlier this year could not have been much chillier...
...The Florida Supreme Court's review is triggered automatically when io percent of the signatures necessary to get on the ballot have been gathered and validated, approximately 43,600 signatures...
...The premiums vary wildly...
...Cardenas's concerns were a mixture of principle and pragmatism...
...Later, there would be sniping from Democrats that Bush's first-term agenda—school vouchers and stiffer prison sentences for criminals who use guns—were unfairly targeting black constituents...
...The man who calls himself "an establishment kind of guy" is the former finance chairman of the California Republican Party...
...The Midland Life Insurance Co., Columbus, OH, form T376 8 T846...
...West Coast Life, San Francisco, CA, form #971137400...
...But George W. Bush tempers his opposition by favoring what he calls "affirmative access," a nebulous term Connerly optimistically interprets as the "outreach" now practiced in California...
...Use the Quotesmith high speed insurance price Quotesmith.com comparison service before you buy or renew any insurance policy...
...Just over 6o percent of Hispanics supported Jeb Bush in 1998...
...He got caught up in his own maelstrom...
...More than a whiff of fear was detectable amid the loathing...
...CA #0827712...
...These 37 words have been the keys to Connerly's success in California and Washington...
...Call can decide what's best for for our free kit on managing the you...
...Connerly, a long-time Republican loyalist, has said he wants to support Texas Governor George W. Bush for presi28 July 1999 The American Spectator MES TO FLORIDA The American Spectator • July 1999 29 The Republican Senate president missed her meeting with Connerly and the Republican House speaker refused to schedule a meeting at all...
...Nothing had happened yet to estrange these unlikely political bedfellows...
...But that's their problem...
...George W. Bush has gone on record against race-based preferences (he supported a federal court decision that did away with them at the University of Texas...
...APC has handled some 300 ballot initiatives since 1979, including Proposition 209 in California and its counterpart Initiative 200 in Washington...
...Petersburg Times...
...That would mean losing a chance to maintain the conservative bent of the Supreme Court, he said...
...Cardenas vowed he would not send a nickel to support Connerly's efforts and that he also "would discourage folks from contributing financially...
...Co., Rockville, MD, form RT-97...
...Florida's new Republican governor has said he is opposed to racial preferences, but won't back Connerly for fear of alienating black Democrats...
...Policy forms vary by state...
...The scarcity of dollars could be attributed to one thing, Barry said...
...What does that make my grandchildren," he likes to ask...
...I can help this guy [in California]," Connerly said...
...His cause is to take care of Mr...
...Another Tallahassee powerbroker opined: "Mr...
...It's lightning fast, easy, informative, unbiased, private and FREE...
...Rates shown are not applicable to residents of FL, NJ & NY...
...Even if 2000 turns out to be the wrong time, there is one thing in Connerly's favor: All the signatures he gathered will still be valid come 2002...
...We should assume the court is going to make our life difficult," he said recently...
...I know I give them heartburn," Connerly has said of Republicans who question his tactics...
...IRAR048646 1-800-541-5862 33 "Republicans are so inept they have turned [racial preferences] into a wedge issue against themselves," says one California activist...
...The governor closed with a promise to have his staff "review current practices and policies related to affirmative action...
...Connerly, whose ideals and ego are evenly matched, was undaunted...
...and the second was from Al Cardenas, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida...
...During the four years since 187 went to the polls, Wilson failed in a bid for the presidency, Republicans lost seats in the state Assembly, and last year a Democrat was elected governor...
...One would ban racial and ethnic preferences in public education, one would do the same for public employment, and the third would cover preferences in public contracting...
...He mentioned a recent piece in the New York Times Magazine that examined university admissions in California in the wake of Prop...
...All this is just grist for the mill of criticism, however...
...National Life, Montpelier, VT, form 28-86...
...Co., Birmingham, AL, form GP-06...
...Interestingly, the fragmented ballot initiatives do not include sex among the standards for banning preferences...
...Because we'd hate to payout from your former employer's see your retirement plan go retirement plan...
...When he is described as African-American, he bristles...
...In that regard, Florida's climate has been far different from the one that proved so fertile for the California Civil Rights Initiative in 1996...
...And when you're ready, you can request an application from the company of your choice online, without having to talk to any insurance salesmen...
...He had expected the vitriol from the black Democrats, but the level of resistance from his own party surprised him...
...Petersburg to Orlando) are perfect for the initial phase of signature gathering...
...This isn't ego," Connerly said in early May, "but it means something when Steve Forbes calls, when Dan Quayle asks me to come down to Texas with him, when Lamar Alexander flies out to meet with me...
...The poll numbers, which had been gathered by Zogby International, were lopsidedly in favor of abolishing preferences...
...That's why he married a white woman...
...In early May, Connerly said he had been invited to travel with George W. Bush on a three-day swing through California at the end of June...
...Adding to his reputation as a conservative activist with a national agenda, there is a chance that Connerly may even press a similar initiative in Michigan in 2000 as well as in Florida...
...Connerly is little if not already politicized...
...The Florida Board of Regents responded the same day, dismissing the significance of the report (although it was taken from their own statistics), and taunting Connerly as "obviously an unwelcome guest in Florida because of his divisive message...
...He thinks he might be the only black person in his neighborhood...
...Co., Indianapolis, IN, form GRI-L-17.1...
...Rudy Bradley of St...
...To cover his bases, Connerly split the omnibus language into three ballot initiatives...
...There's no wrong time to do the right thing...
...In a February 19 letter, Bush was quick to remind Connerly: "I oppose rigid quotas and set asides designed to guarantee outcomes for one class of citizens over another...
...Good Housekeeping "Quotesmith offers particularly thorough searches...
...Fundraising was tough for me," Barry, 54, said recently...
...What box should they check...
...I shopped from my own office and found the best deal available...
...An establishment kind of guy" Connerly does indeed have some standing in California...
...Nation's Business "Quotesmith saved us time and money...
...At first blush it might seem both statements came from roughly the same end of the political spectrum...
...250,000 Term Life Sampler Guaranteed Annual Premiums/Guaranteed Level Term Period Female Premiums Male Premiums Age 10 15 20 25 30 YEAR YEAR YEAR YEAR YEAR 35 $ 120 $ 135 $ 165 $ 235 $ 235 40 $ 153 $ 188 $ 200 $ 298 $ 300 45 $ 200 $ 210 $ 265 $ 400 $ 415 50 $ 260 $ 313 $ 400 $ 578 $ 608 55 $ 385 $ 440 $ 600 $ 956 $ 1,065 60 $ 535 $ 690 $ 865 $ 3,140 $ 3,140 65 $ 883 $ 1,015 $ 1,733 $ 4,100 $ 4,100 70 $1,430 $ 1,637 $ 3,035 $ 5,270 $ 7,220 75 $2,797 $ 4,770 $ 6,560 $10,370 $10,370 Age 10 15 20 25 30 YEAR YEAR YEAR YEAR YEAR 35 $ 138 $ 163 $ 198 $ 280 $ 300 40 $ 185 $ 210 $ 260 $ 385 $ 383 45 $ 260 $ 335 $ 395 $ 548 $ 585 50 $ 378 $ 500 $ 600 $ 863 $ 915 55 $ 568 $ 758 $ 865 $ 1,805 $ 2,810 60 $ 908 $ 1,130 $ 1,365 $ 4,100 $ 4,100 65 $1,530 $ 1,845 $ 2,923 $ 5,270 $ 5,270 70 $2,665 $ 3,539 $ 5,405 $ 7,370 $10,070 75 $4,415 $ 7,848 $ 9,650 $13,640 $13,640 "Quotesmith provides a list of all insurance companies & plans that match specific needs...
...Armed with poll figures that suggest overwhelming grassroots support for ending racial and ethnic preferences in state hiring, contracting, and higher education admission, Connerly said he was ready to put a voter initiative on the ballot in November z000...
...In the same letter, Bush enumerated issues he considered of more immediate concern to the state—education, child abuse and high taxes, among them...
...It's an area of the state that has much higher polling results on this issue...
...Moments later, Connerly assailed Bush for practicing "identity politics...
...Los Angeles Times "Researching insurance companies can be confusing and tedious...
...Yet Wood worries about what Connerly is doing in Florida...
...Forbes"Quotesmith keeps a database of about 350 insurance companies...
...New source for best buys in insurance...
...To say to me, I'm right on the issue, but it's not the right time to pursue it is to me the ultimate act of cowardice," Connerly says...
...The political opposition massed quickly...
...The state Supreme Court may consider the issue indefinitely and it is a safe bet that Republicans and Democrats will lobby hard for a very deliberate process...
...eeseeee-*****e****08V #,6**M g&00.8,* Od8 416 k, would keep our state from focusing on these pressing issues—issues on which I must build a consensus," Bush wrote...
...In classic style, Connerly insists that George W. Bush needs his support as much as he needs the good will of the front-running presidential candidate...
...We're proud of our record," said Vice Chancellor James Mau in a news release that did not address the Lincoln Center study, but instead explained how the state university system uses race as "one of many factors" in accordance with the 1978 Bakke decision...
...209 and found that good may have come from abolishing preferences...
...But they have been notably silent on affirmative action, reflecting what some see as ambivalence...
...Kiplinger's Personal Finance "Quotesmith ranked more than 250 policies for Forbes...
...Both measures had been heavi30 Ju y 1999 • The American Spectator You'll find the lowest term life rates in America at Quotesmith.com or we'll overnight you $500...
...This solution has value for those who value immediacy and privacy...
...Other pleasant surprises now include instant auto, life and medical insurance quotes from 375 large, safe & well-known companies...
...Connerly argues that his omnibus ballot language describes a single issue, but his lawyers have advised him that he is likely to be disappointed when the Supreme Court disagrees...
...He needs to take his little butt back to California where he came from and leave us the hell alone," said one state senator...
...You don't end discrimination by practicing discrimination," Connerly said...
...It's not something you can talk about in polite company without being considered a complete hick...
...The Republican Senate president did not show up for her scheduled meeting with Connerly and the House speaker, also a Republican, refused to schedule a meeting at all...
...First, he would have to get past the Florida Supreme Court...
...It has helped, Connerly said, that a subtle but significant change appears to be occurring in how the media covers affirmative action...
...Is the battle worth the war...
...But he also sees white women as potential supporters of his initiative...
...Avoid O buying mistakes and bad advice...
...But absent any hue and cry from aggrieved students in Florida, Gov...
...Bradley, who was one of three prominent black legislators to endorse Bush last year, announced in mid-May that he had joined the Republican Party, thus becoming the second black Republican in the legislature since Reconstruction...
...Fellow blacks in California," he said, "know I am a man of some standing in my state and know I am not a pawn of anybody...
...My race is the human race...
...In 1996, state Sen...
...It would be a Pyrrhic victory," Wood said, adding that it might be smarter to wait for the statewide election in 2002, or simply pick an easier state...
...Public policy is by definition divisive," Connerly told WSKY host Joe Young...
...Yet statewide debate on the subject of racial preferences in higher education has been scant to nonexistent...
...Connerly might have harbored hopes that Hispanic Republicans from South Florida would throw their support to him...
...More than a month earlier, the St...
...Confronted with Connerly's four-year-old head of steam, jeb Bush attempted to divert him with diplomacy...
...on every term life quote...
...But the solution is not to assume black children need more help just because they are black...
...The non-tobacco use premiums shown above may include: Banner Life Ins...
...As it is written, Jones said, the initiative suggests that it will do away with discrimination in Florida...
...With the omnibus language thrown in on the off chance that it might get Supreme Court approval, all four separate petitions began circulating on May 15...
...If Connerly has no ethnic pride it is because he does not identify with any particular ethnic group or race...
...On March 15, Connerly returned to Florida to kick off his official campaign...
...But Connerly knew that his grassroots support would mean little if he could not get his language on the ballot...
...From years of experience in Florida, Arno knows the demographics of the west-central part of the state (from Tampa/St...
...Best, Duff & Phelps, Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Weiss Research, Inc...
...Golden Rule Ins...
...But keeping up momentum is crucial, and that will likely require high profile supporters, not just John Doe donors...
...That is until Connerly asked for and received a 45-minute audience with Bush...
...Proposition 209, as that voter initiative came to be called, rode a wave of popular opinion that had been set in motion by a 1995 California Board of Regents decision to abolish preferences in the University of California system...
...He can foresee the initiative passing, but wreaking enough havoc in the GOP to keep George W. Bush out of the White House...
...A poll of Florida voters commissioned by Connerly conducted February 17-18 satisfied Connerly that the support he needed was waiting to be tapped...
...Next to Connerly, there are few people as passionately opposed to preferences as Thomas Wood, the executive director of the California Association of Scholars...
...To simplify the task, call Quotesmith...
...Two-thirds of those students (who are deemed to possess other special talents) are minorities...
...A recent poll found that 80 percent of Floridians—including 79 percent of blacks and 80 percent of Hispanics—favored a ban on racial preferences...
...Old Republic Life Ins...
...Call us toll-free at 1-800-431-1147, 24 hrs...
...Connerly and take a cut off the top and go back to California...
...Connerly relishes the prospect of a two-front campaign, impatient as he is to force a U.S...
...Petersburg Times had published a story on the subject of alternative admissions, the roughly 80o-1,100 students admitted each year to the state's top three universities who do not meet the state's minimum standards...
...We give you detailed information - including underwriting requirements - and the latest claims ratings from A.M...
...I don't think there's any question they'll oppose [Connerly's initiative] even though doing so would benefit blacks...
...Proposition 209, which was cast by its critics as the Angry White Male's issue, followed closely on the heels of the 1994 initiative Proposition 187, which denied health and education benefits to illegal immigrants...
...Premium rates always escalate after initial rate guarantee period...
...Some premiums shown are graded premium life policies and/or term-like universal life policies...
...I think the applause from the right has become heady stuff in his mind...
...He may get his chance...
...Connerly does not want to use the term affirmative action because he knows people support the concept of affirmative action, said Lydia Chavez, a professor at the University California at Berkeley who wrote a book on the zo9 campaign called The Color Bind: California's Battle to End Affirmative Action...
...He refuses to belong to organizations that are exclusively black, such as the Sacramento Black Chamber of Commerce, which ironically is located next door to the office of Connerly's nonprofit group, the American Civil Rights Institute...
...It shows the sky doesn't fall when you pass these programs," Connerly said...
...That's affirmative action...
...It's a more moderate conservative area of the state," he said...
...Connerly's mixed ancestry is the personification of the American melting pot...
...The ballot initiatives in those states were identical and the margins of victory were nearly as identical-54 percent in favor in California, 58 percent in favor in Washington...
...Professor Rodolfo de la Garza of the University of Texas, an expert on Hispanic voting patterns, said that Cubans generally have a superior attitude toward blacks and other immigrant groups...
...Hardly had enough," he said, "to pay car expenses to get around the state...
...500 lowest price guarantee not available in SD...
...It was the exact opposite of the vote...
...Security-Connecticut Life, Avon, CT, form 11420...
...In 1994, the court ruled that an anti-gay rights amendment was too broadly worded and struck it from the ballot...
...His ex-daughter-in-law is half-Vietnamese...
...U.S...
...Catholic Order of Foresters, Naperville, IL, form RTL...
...34 July 1999 • The American Spectator Cuban Americans, despite their reputation as conservatives, have been notably silent on the issue of affirmative action...
...First Penn-Pacific Life, Hoffman Estates, IL, form BT1002AA(2-96), Control #B98-198(3/98...
...News & World Report Quotesmith is the only Internet site on earth where you can get instant auto, life & medical insurance quotes from 375 top-rated companies...
...The argument that confusion has bolstered Connerly's successes was lent some credence in 1997 when voters in Houston defeated a measure that included the term affirmative action instead of preferences...
...What Connerly was threatening to import was potentially far more dangerous...
...Arno predicts that his workers will be idle "anywhere from two to six months waiting for a decision...
...The rhetoric smacked of century-old prejudices against carpetbaggers...
...We have greater standing and greater appeal if we have found our own way," Harmon said...
...Read it carefully before investing...
...Wary Republicans were somewhat more circumspect than Sen...
...Petersburg in April...
...It was the third week in January and Connerly, 59, arrived in Tallahassee bearing bad news for Bush, the 45year-old governor still basking in the glow of a resounding win at the polls...
...We don't want to repeat the mistakes of others...
...During a call-in radio interview with a Florida station in February, Connerly showed how he can deftly appropriate the rhetoric of The American Spectator • July 1999 the 1960's civil rights movement as well as cater to hardline conservatives...
...Daryl Jones (D-Miami), who heads the Legislature's black caucus, called the language so deceptively benign, "I might be inclined to vote for it myself...
...He dismissed GOP antagonism and warned: "Those who deny this mandate will be blindsided by this grassroots popular sentiment...
...Money "Enter the virtual agent...
...Along with Glynn Custred, Wood was one of the earliest proponents of the California Civil Rights Initiative...
...Later, Connerly would say that letter showed Bush is "just buying time...
...Outwardly, Connerly said he took no offense...
...It would be a disaster...
...In particular, universities have done more aggressive outreach to high schools whose graduates had historically been underrepresented in the University of California system...
...When you can end discrimination," Jones said, "you don't need preferences...
...Jeb] Bush did not want that on the ballot...
...Ultimately, he said, Bush will discover that his nominal support among blacks (he took 14 percent of the black vote in 1998) is not worth sacrificing the grassroots support of his own party...
...The fact that Bush met with him at all offended some Democrats...
...The kit clearly all to pieces, explains the pros and cons of all the distribution options, so you Invest With Confidence T.RowePricet For more information, including fees and expenses, request a prospectus...
...Unlike Bush's failed gubernatorial bid in 1994, during which he had been quoted saying he had no idea how to appeal to black voters, the second time around Bush adroitly assembled a cadre of key black Democrats, two of whom stood behind him on election night as he gave his victory speech...
...If we get Florida and Michigan in the same year, it's a knockout punch," Connerly said...
...ago****4***4.2.1,0 ly supported by Republican Gov...
...He wants to be white...
...The cost of gathering enough signatures to trigger the judicial review is estimated at $100,000, said Herb Harmon, a former executive director of the Florida Republican Party who is advising Connerly on the Florida Civil Rights Initiative...
...Diane Watson, who is black, said, "Ward Connerly has no ethnic pride...
...Already the Florida Civil Rights Initiative is highlighting a number of political ironies that will likely play out for a national audience during the coming presidential election: • The Republican Party in Florida, following the lead of the national party, refuses to embrace an issue that a majority of Republican voters support...
...Lauderdale, Florida "Get quotes on the spot...
...SmartMoney "Quotesmith will scan the insurers and provide a list of different policies suited to your needs...
...If he clears that hurdle, which has already forced him to radically alter his previously unbeaten ballot language, the stage will be set for a nasty showdown that would most certainly divide the state as no other issue has in recent years...
...It may seem odd that Republicans would be so timid on an issue that has such broad-based popular support, but party leaders have seen short-term victories pave the way for longer-term losses...
...Switching Jobs Can Have An Unfortunate Effect On Your Retirement Savings...
...The study, conducted by the Lincoln Center for Public Service and the Florida Association of Scholars, professed to show, among other things, that 708 white students were denied admission to Florida's law schools even though their qualifications (law boards and grade point average) would have given them a better than 90-percent chance of admission if they were black...
...Fifty-four percent said yes," Chavez said...
...Even Connerly's support was something of a double-edged sword...
...At his meeting with Bush, Connerly was accompanied by representatives of the Associated General Contractors, an organization that represents some 2,000 commercial contractors across the state...
...It became pretty apparent that Republicans as a party were not going to do anything about this because Jeb Bush had decided that he would make appeals to black Floridians and Hispanics and was not going to do anything about preferences," Barry said...
...This is not meant to imply that Connerly has endorsed Bush's candidacy...
...Three of four seats in our public medical and law schools are occupied by white students...
...Meanwhile, black Democrats seized on Connerly's alliance with the AGC as proof that his devotion to the cause was only as deep as the pockets of his backers...
...Have questions or want quotes mailed to you for free...
...If you look at their domestic agenda, they're Democrats...
...We're one Supreme Court decision away from ending preferences...
...Ballot access would cost close to $1 million," he said...
...Barry, with far less political experience than Connerly, never approached raising the estimated $1 million necessary to gather the 436,000 signatures to get on the ballot...
...I don't see why we would want to endanger that...
...Connerly got carried away with himself," The American Spectator July 1999 said William T. Bagley, a fellow California regent in a December interview in California Monthly...
...Cubans are Republican because of foreign policy," de la Garza said...
...The central problem of this entire issue is most decent people who are not already politicized do not want to be called racists...
...Connerly thinks the attentions of GOP presidential candidates will help his cause...
...The vote made Connerly, one of the newest regents, a household name in California...
...Protective Life Ins...
...It was certainly divisive when Rosa Parks wanted to sit in the front of the bus...
...Linda Picazio, Ft...
...So far, no other group of equivalent size has stepped forward for Connerly...
...When blacks attack Connerly in his own state they call him Uncle Tom and Oreo...
...It was a victory, but one that seemed to expose a major weakness in Connerly's strategy...
...eemeowiernoeoe***oeo* 4 * * 0 * * 0, * 0 0 0 0 0 0 0- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 * He doesn't call, he doesn't write Things are apt to get much tougher after that...
...In Florida that process is far from perfunctory...
...The Florida Civil Rights Initiative could be dead in the water if the state Supreme Court rules that those precious 37 words run afoul of the single-issue principle designed to reduce voter confusion...
...Call For Your Free Information Kit Today...
...T. Rowe Price Investment Services, Inc., Distributor...
...And both initiatives passed, but they have hardly proved a political boon for the GOP...
...I'm not] this wild-eyed guy out on the margin," Connerly said...
...The end result is that the public in California has reacted badly against the Republicans," Cardenas said...
...In part, say observers, Connerly seeks to spare himself the grief of fighting a war on two fronts...
...Connerly and Harmon say they want the first $1 million from inside the state...
...Such agreement between two parties undergoing a momentous and bitter power shift made it clear that Connerly represented a formidable foe: a black conservative with a deft fundraising touch and a silver-tongued debating style...
...Honeymoon spoiler Jeb Bush had not been in office a full month when Connerly first knocked on his door...
...Republicans are so inept they have turned it into a wedge issue against themselves...
...35...
...Interestingly, it was not necessary for Bradley to amend hisviews on Connerly to bring himself into general alignment with the Republican governor...
...I'm of African descent, Irish descent, French descent, Choctaw Indian descent," he said...
...I'm withholding my endorsement right now until I know where he stands on preferences," Connerly said...
...If you have an issue where 6o percent of the American people agree with you and you can't use it to your advantage, then you're just incompetent," Wood said...
...m • • • • • • s • • • • • • • • • • OOOOOOOOOOOOO • • OOOOO • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The results confirmed a similar poll conducted in Florida two years earlier in which 84 percent of voters, and 86 percent of blacks, supported a ban on preferences...
...It proved no more effective than outright abuse in steering Connerly away and left many with the impression that Bush was equivocating on the issue...
...When no means yes "The state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any individual or group, on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnic or national origin, in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting...
...Texas Gov...
...Where the next $900,000 will come from—never mind the several millions more for a full campaign—is anyone's guess...
...It did not surprise John Barry, an Orlando accountant, who had attempted to put a similar anti-preferences initiative on the ballot in 1998...
...Connerly, the leader of two highly divisive and hugely successful anti-affirmative action initiatives in California and Washington state, had come to Tallahassee in January to announce that Florida would be perfect territory for a similar ballot initiative...
...just as important, the AGC had the money to back Connerly's cause...
...From the perspective of the state's political establishment, the California businessman and conservative crusader could have smuggled in a load of citrus-devouring fruit flies and he would not have been treated with the same disdain...
...His early political mentor was a young state assemblyman named Pete Wilson...
...The Tallahassee political elite, of both parties, knew that every time Connerly had made a direct appeal to the voters he had won—by large margins...
...You can fuzz it up by calling it affirmative action, but it's still discrimination...
...Bush is at the mercy of his rainbow coalition," Connerly said...
...Bush's office also did not return repeated calls for this article...
...Instead, he took out a microphone, scheduling a press conference in Tallahassee to tout the results of a conservative think tank's study of race-based admissions to the state's medical and law schools...
...By the time Barry abandoned the campaign, maybe $30,000 had dribbled in...
...While the Republican leadership focused on preventing defections from within the party, black Democrats applied their pressure directly on the governor, attempting to hold him to his election night pledge that "this is a victory of inclusion rather than exclusion...
...You've got problems here in Florida," Connerly said...
...It's pretty apparent he's riding around in limousines and collecting fees, agitating people," said state Rep...
...BILL DURYEA is a staff writer for the St...
...Since then the opposition has not diminished and Connerly's resolve has strengthened...
...Co., Chicago, IL, form 8-1077...
...The others are occupied by qualified minorities who possess the skills, desires and motivations for success...
...An appeals court later overturned the vote, saying the ballot did not match the phrasing on the initial petitions...
...My concern is that a bitter political campaign that divides Florida by race or ethnicity 32 July 1999 • The American Spectator Connerly sees white women as potential supporters, since they tend to charge discrimination "not on the basis of gender, but on race...
...By early July, Connerly expects to have gathered roughly 43,600 signatures on his petitions, enough to trigger a mandatory review of the proposed ballot language by the Florida Supreme Court...
...They feel they do not need affirmative action programs to succeed even though they favor programs for the poor...
...Before anyone gets to debate the merits of the issue, the initiative language must be approved for the ballot...
...But so far the AGC has not been cowed by either the Democratic or Republican hierarchies, giving $50,000 in fundraising support to the Florida Civil Rights Initiative, with a pledge of $50,000 more to come...
...Michael Arno, president of Arno Political Consultants, a Sacramento-based signature-gathering firm that specializes in conservative ballot initiatives, said he doubts he will have any difficulty collecting the signatures by the beginning of July...
...Bush and his party chairman, Al Cardenas, could make a good argument that Connerly's initiative was "a solution looking for a problem...
...I don't think people bleed an awful lot because some contractor had a bid denied," he has said...
...Yes, but for whom...
...One way to get to know the market...
...Most likely "a white woman arguing discrimination is doing so not on the basis of gender," Connerly said, "but on race...
...Supreme Court ruling overturning the 22-year-old Bakke decision that first permitted the use of preferences...
...The study's sponsors had little reason to expect that their numbers would provoke a groundswell of support...
...Quotesmith.com AD CODE: TAS 7/99 incorporated Final premiums and coverage availability will vary depending upon age, sex, state availability, hazardous activities, personal and family health history...
...dent, but he is willing to press the anti-preferences issue even though some Republicans fear it could keep them out of the White House...
...Connerly and his special interest groups are combining efforts to eliminate job and contract opportunities for women and minorities...
...In fact, the first comment came from Betty Holzendorf, a black Democrat from Jacksonville...
...Look at what happened in California, he said...
...The AGC, whose membership is 88-90 percent white, is eager to do away with state and local programs that require minority- and female-owned businesses in building contracts...
...Pete Wilson as well as the state Republican Party...
...Connerly, however, perceives such strategizing as a betrayal of the core philosophy of conservatism...
...In response to the ad hominem attacks, Connerly derided "Southern blacks and the way they conduct themselves in the public arena...
...T. Rowe Price can help...
...Connerly's critics have said it is precisely his ego that has motivated him...
...Connerly denies he is making money from his association with the AGC...
...Holzendorf (who had disparaged Connerly's rear end), but they made their displeasure known nevertheless...
...He owns racehorses...
...Still, for a brief moment in the middle of February, Connerly contemplated a path of less resistance, a virtually frictionless battle in Nebraska perhaps...
...Criticizing Republicans for bungling the preferences issue, Wood can be sharper-tongued than Connerly...
...After all, many of them are Cuban-American, a group that stands out among Hispanics for its conservatism...
...Florida State Sen...
...But the person whose support Connerly most wants is the one the Weekly Standard recently reported was avoiding him...
...He's going to realize this compassionate conservatism is walking a tightrope...
...But privately Connerly acknowledged that the plight of the contractors, however legitimate, would not stir widespread indignation among voters...
...Connerly's housing consulting firm in Sacramento has made him enough money to live in a half-million-dollar home...
...Bush's campaign did not return Barry's phone calls, even though Barry's bona fides as a conservative were sufficient, he said, to receive early advice from Robert Bork and Brad Reynolds, Ronald Reagan's assistant attorney general for civil rights...
...It's a skunk at a garden party issue...
...The first to make available this new custom -search service...
Vol. 32 • July 1999 • No. 7
