Propositioning the States

...The 2006 Michigan ballot results, according to Peter Schmidt of the Chronicle of Higher Education, have made university administrators "very, very nervous" and have pushed "farther underground" evidence that race is a factor in determining admission...

...In 1996, Connerly guided passage of Proposition 209, repealing California's racial preferences in public school admissions, employment, and contracting...

...The Heritage Foundation's Gaziano says these race proxies are "just as bad or worse" than overt racial preferences...

...Trying to move the nation beyond race is something I've done all my life," Connerly says...

...Asked to comment for this story, Giuliani responded through a campaign-issued statement, citing the mayor's commitment to ensuring "all Americans have a fair opportunity to compete," while declaring "I believe our nation must be committed to equal treatment for all and preferential treatment for none...

...He was born in Louisiana, traveled in the Jim Crow South, and married across race lines—once an illegal act in many states...

...Exemplifying what Prof...

...No doubt Connerly will face fierce opposition in 2008, as he did in 2006 in Michigan, where preference proponents unleashed a torrent of personal attacks against him...

...The board also called on academics to create alliances with other interest groups who can defend preferences "threatened by ballot measures...

...Yet days later voters overwhelmingly approved the measure, 58 percent to 42 percent...

...At least one GOP presidential contender, former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, has consistently opposed racial preferences...

...Allen calls the universities' "high dudgeon about what to do about the threat to 'diversity,'" the College Board issued a report this month exhorting universities to mount a defense of racial preferences...

...Asked why he persists, Connerly tells of his childhood...

...Jennifer Granholm, who won reelection 56 percent to 42 percent, and Sen...

...A poll before Election Day 2006 showed Connerly's measure—dubbed the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative—losing by 10 points...

...First, racial preference proponents believe that they have the "moral high ground" in defending racial preferences designed to aid the "disadvantaged...

...Todd Gaziano, director for legal and judicial studies at the Heritage Foundation, says Con-nerly is "savvy to seize the moment" and press his agenda for a race-neutral society...

...According to Connerly, Michigan "radically altered the playing field" in the debate over preferences...

...Moreover, Gaziano says, these measures "mask what is really going on" in university admissions processes, creating "suspicion and resentment" as to whether students were admitted on their own merit...

...Sander describes how racial preferences create a "mismatch effect" between the beneficiaries and elite law schools by assigning "blacks to law schools where they labor under a significant academic disadvantage...

...This disadvantage leads to low grades (roughly half of black law students are in the bottom tenth of their law school classes), and very low law school grades lead more often to academic dismissal, dropping out, and trouble on the bar...

...His prime considerations were whether he would have local support (and thereby combat what he calls the "carpetbagger" label) and whether he would have a "good shot of winning...

...Beginning on April 23, Connerly traveled to Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arizona, and South Dakota announcing that they were the selected states...

...Ward has played a crucial role in providing a face with which to identify the campaign against preferences," says Michigan State University professor William B. Allen...

...Even longtime colleagues doubted Connerly could succeed in a Democratic state with a high minority population where politicians of both parties joined academics, clergy, business, union, and civil rights leaders to oppose the measure...

...Clegg explains: "If you could persuade African Americans that affirmative action is a bad idea, the fight would be over...

...Pointing to the work of academics who have studied the efficacy of affirmative action, Clegg says that it may be possible to persuade people that racial preferences are "not doing what they are supposed to do...

...In late 2004, UCLA law professor Richard Sander's Stanford Law Review article, "A Systemic Analysis of Affirmative Action in American Law Schools," created a firestorm by documenting that "black law students are nearly two-and-one-half times as likely as white law students to not graduate from law school, four times as likely to fail the bar on their first attempt, and six times as likely to never pass the bar...

...Most recently, in Michigan in 2006, Connerly set out to prove the Supreme Court "got it wrong" in 2003 when it upheld the constitutionality of the University of Michigan Law School's use of Jennifer Rubin is a writer in Virginia...

...He contends they are still unconstitutional since they are designed to classify students by race, just as decades ago "literacy" tests barred African Americans from voting...

...Envisioning a repudiation of the "diversity rationale," Connerly says that "we're going to abbreviate the 'twenty-five years.'" He's referring to the following statement from Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote in Grutter v. Bollinger, the 2003 Supreme Court decision permitting race to be used as one of many factors in university admissions, "Twenty-five years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary...

...Both politicians received fewer votes than Connerly's initiative...

...Connerly says two things are responsible for the gulf between elite and popular opinion on racial preferences...

...As a member of the University of California Board of Regents, Connerly championed the 1995 referendum ending the state's racial admissions preferences...

...As mayor, Giuliani ended minority "set asides" for city contracts and hiring as well as the City University of New York's "open admissions" policy, which was designed to increase minority enrollment by dropping academic requirements for admission...

...Meanwhile, Arizona senator John McCain's campaign responded that the candidate did not yet have a position on Connerly's potential referenda...

...Connerly may have more support in 2008 than he did in Michigan in 2006...

...The result was even more remarkable given the wide margin of victory for two Democrats, Gov...

...His most powerful evidence may be the continuing disparity between bar exam passage rates despite widespread racial preferences at law schools: In 1994 the rate for bar passage was 91 percent for whites and 61 percent for African Americans...

...He led a similar measure in Washington state...

...The success or failure of his 2008 referenda will say much about whether the country is ready to follow Conner-ly's lead...

...In 2008, Connerly plans to emphasize empirical data challenging the premise that racial preferences are necessary to assist minorities...

...by Jennifer Rubin If Ward Connerly has his way, on Election Day 2008 no fewer than five states will host referenda to bar racial preferences in public college admissions, employment, and contracting...

...If the measures succeed, Connerly explains in an interview, "we will be witnessing the end of an era" in which racial, ethnic, and gender preferences have been used to promote "diversity" and the social advancement of women and minorities...

...Second, Connerly believes that many are simply cowed by civil rights activists and academics who label preference opponents "racists...

...Sander's work ignited fierce criticism, but he contends his opponents have not shaken his conclusion that preferences harm minorities...

...There are a lot of people who feel very, very strongly that if you don't support ethnic and racial preferences you are evil," says Roger Clegg, president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity...

...This is nothing new for Connerly, who has endured years of abuse from civil rights activists...

...The stark gap between elite and popular opinion and the margin of victory of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative encouraged Connerly to seek a knock-out blow against preferences...

...Golden estimates that at least 50 percent of students at elite schools are admitted on nonmerit factors...

...Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has not spoken publicly on the Michigan initiative, but his campaign says he "does not support quotas or preferences...

...Connerly and his supporters dub this the search for "proxies for race"—criteria that appear "race neutral" but aim to find the same pool of minority applicants...

...Also challenging the elite consensus is Dan Golden, whose book The Price of Admission details the degree to which academically underqualified students received preferential treatment due to factors including race, athletic skill, legacy status, and "development" potential (large donation prospects...

...He says politicians will be "much bolder" on the issue of preferences in this election cycle, and reports promises of support from many in the targeted states...

...The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the College Board admonished academics to explain "the need for maintaining the academic freedom of higher-education institutions to use race and ethnicity in enrollment-management practices...

...Debbie Stabenow, who won reelection 57 percent to 41 percent...

...Now it is 78 percent for whites and 47 percent for African Americans...

...Connerly systematically surveyed states before determining the best locations for his 2008 referenda...

...race "as one of many factors" to achieve student diversity...