Missouri Asks a Loaded Question

...The two suits are set for trial on October 30...

...Connerly is the nation's most visible proponent of measures to eliminate race-based preferences, having led the successful fight for Proposition 209 in California in 1996 and a similar measure in Washington state in 1997...

...Attorney General Nixon, who approved Carnah-an's language and is defending it in court, did not respond to requests for comment...

...that the fiscal note prepared by the auditor was insufficient...

...BAMN is the most vocal and extreme of Connerly's opponents— leading demonstrations that have turned violent and disrupting public meetings, labeling Connerly "the most notorious and fanatical right wing opponent of civil rights in Jennifer Rubin is a writer living in Virginia...

...He contends the vote will be close, "but we can still win on the language" crafted by the secretary of state...

...Mindy Mazur, chief of staff for the secretary of state, told me that Carna-han complied with the state requirement of a 100-word summary without "prejudice for or against" the initiative...

...They have now dropped the fig leaf...

...The ballot initiative that Connerly sought to qualify in Missouri is identical to the successful Michigan one and reads as follows: The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting...

...Connerly's opponents, most particularly BAMN, are candid that their strategy is to keep these measures off the ballot because when they go before voters they have proven popular...

...Tim Asher knows that voters are generally not familiar with a ballot initiative until they go to vote, and if the language seems extreme, or even confusing, they will be inclined to vote against it...

...and allow preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin to meet federal program funds eligibility standards as well as preferential treatment for bona fide qualifications based on sex...

...BAMN is having success in Missouri thanks to the Democratic secretary of state Robin Carnahan (daughter of former governor Mel Carnahan) and the attorney general, Jay Nixon...

...In the past Connerly has defended affirmative action that is not race based, such as efforts to reach out to the economically disadvantaged, but if the secretary of state insists all affirmative action is really race-based then he will have no choice but to "characterize affirmative action the way they do...

...My gut—but I have not come to the end of the road—tells me I think we'll go [forward] anyway," Connerly concludes...

...By year's end, it will be clear whether Connerly's opponents in the Missouri ballot fight will succeed "by any means necessary" in preventing an up or down vote on the future of racial preferences...

...that it runs afoul of the single subject rule for initiatives...

...His twelve-year term ended in 2005...

...BAMN repeatedly tried to remove Connerly from his position as a regent of the University of California because of his effort to remove race-based admissions...

...Tim Asher, executive director of the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative—the measure's local sponsor—has filed suit claiming that Carna-han's language violates state law, which requires that the ballot title use "language neither intentionally argumentative nor likely to create prejudice either for or against the proposed measure...

...Appeals—possibly all the way to the State Supreme Court—will keep both sides busy...

...This initiative, if passed, will reseg-regate higher education in Missouri and legally ban the only policies that have been successful in creating equal opportunity and integration...

...This was clearly not undertaken in good faith," says Roger Clegg, general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity and longtime opponent of racial preferences...

...We want to deprive him of his ability to promote racism and segregation using the University of California name," says Driver...

...With momentum from the 2006 victory, Connerly set out to qualify similar ballot initiatives in five states for 2008...

...She repeatedly denied that the use of the term "affirmative action" represented any significant change from the original language (even though it refers only to "preferential treatment...

...Mazur is confident that Carna-han will prevail, citing previous lawsuits in Missouri in which the courts deferred to the secretary of state's summary language...

...After reviewing Connerly's language, she prepared the required state "ballot title"—the summary of the initiative that appears on the ballot...

...He thinks "most people in the privacy of the voting booth will read between the lines...

...With only a little expectation, I think they'll discern the facts...

...That's not what will be in front of voters as they go into the voting booth if Carnahan has her way...

...He notes that the initiative "does not ban all affirmative action—only that which uses preferences based on race, ethnicity, and sex...

...Mazur insisted that the effect of the initiative would be to "ban affirmative action" and that voters need to know "what they are voting on...

...Opponents of the initiative have filed suit against both Carnahan and the state auditor claiming the ballot title is insufficient in that, among other things, it fails to mention that preferences on the basis of age, veteran status, and disability would be banned (none of these classifications were included in the language proposed by Connerly...

...When I ask him whether he will go forward with the initiative if the court challenge to Carnahan's summary fails, he says that this is the "billion dollar question...

...Connerly knows that he faces an uphill battle to restore his original language to the ballot...

...He has hit a bump in the road in Missouri...

...Connerly sees the revamped language as "designed to prejudice the initiative...

...If he drops his efforts after the courts have upheld the objectionable language, he knows his opponents will claim a victory and assert that it is he who won't go before the voters unless he gets to use "fraudulent language...

...If the public sees affirmative action and race preferences as coterminous," he says, "this does not accrue to the benefit of affirmative action proponents...

...Connerly finds it ironic that opponents of the initiative now equate "affirmative action" with "racial preferences"—something defenders of affirmative action went to great lengths to deny for many years, claiming to be interested only in "equal opportunity...

...The ballot title is now the subject of two lawsuits...

...Clegg concludes that what Carnahan is doing is "to distort the language in the initiative so people won't vote for it...

...Leading the attack on him in Missouri is the Michigan-based group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), whose national co-chair Shanta Driver summed up the attacks on Connerly: A white-majority electorate does not have the right to codify in law white privilege and deny minorities their fundamental right to equality...

...by Jennifer Rubin Ward Connerly delivered one of the big wins for conservatives on election day 2006—a lopsided victory (5842 percent) for the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which banned racial and gender preferences in state university admissions and contracting and hiring...

...and that it violates federal statutes and the Constitution...

...California" and filing suit to invalidate the Michigan voters' decision, claiming Connerly and his supporters engaged in voter fraud...

...The court has already denied the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative's request to have Carnahan deposed...

...He is committed to raising sufficient funds to "make the case that this perversion [of his initiative language] bespeaks of the larger issue about what affirmative action means...

...Carnah-an's summary reads: Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to ban: affirmative action programs designed to eliminate discrimination against, and improve opportunities for women, and minorities in public contracting, employment and education...