Both opponents of an initiative that calls for elimination of affirmative action programs and those that support the potentially economic crippling proposal are claiming victory in a Monday ruling by Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan.
Ward Connerly, the anti-affirmative action guru from California, was a plaintiff in a court action to change Secretary of State Robin Carnahan’s wording of the proposed ballot initiative.
“(Judge Callahan) dismissed each of our (opponents’ claims,” Brandon Davis, SEIU Missouri/Kansas state council political director.
Davis is a spokesperson for The WE CAN (Working to Empower Community Action Now) organization that hopes to stop the initiative before it reaches the Nov. 4 ballot or, failing that, defeat it at the polls.
“He did not remove the statement that this initiative will ‘ban affirmative action.’ That was the major goal of the proponents,” Davis said.
Callahan, however, did rule in favor of the proponents’ contention that Carnahan’s title of the ballot summary was flawed.
He called Carnahan’s wording “unfair and insufficient” and added that it was “troubling.”
Callahan’s judgement ruled that the language “gave the impression that voters would be authorizing new kinds of preferential treatment programs, if they passed the measure.”
Connerly’s legal challenge also alleged that the ballot measure’s cost estimate was too high. Callahan rejected that claim.
There is a 10-day timeline for appeal, then motions before the appeals court.
The WE CAN coalition consists of FOCUS St. Louis, ACLU of Eastern Missouri, Jobs with Justice, SEIU Missouri/Kansas and other grassroots organizations in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas.
It is scheduling a public hearing in February to educate the public on the positive impact of affirmative action and the effort to keep a proposed ban off the Nov. 4 ballot.
To qualify for the Nov. 4 ballot, the initiative needs 8 percent of the gubernatorial votes cast in the last election (2004) in six of nine congressional districts. Depending on which districts are targeted, this would require 140,000 to 150,000 signatures of registered Missouri voters.
A majority of Missouri voters would then have to vote for the amendment for it to become part of the state Constitution.
The Missouri Republican Party is expected to use this ballot initiative to drive GOP supporters to the polls in an effort to re-elect incumbent Gov. Matt Blunt.
Carnahan and Attorney General Jay Nixon, who approved the first ballot summary, are Democrats.
Nixon is the likely challenger to Blunt in the November election.
Missouri is not the only state with affirmative action programs being attacked by Connerly’s Civil Rights Initiative groups.
Twenty-two boxes of petitions were presented to Oklahoma’s secretary of state in late December, in the effort to land the issue on an upcoming ballot.