Prop. 54 Sponsor Concedes Passage Is Now Unlikely

[Judi Lynn]

September 7, 2003

Prop. 54 Sponsor Concedes Passage Is Now Unlikely
Connerly says he can't match Bustamante's money. Schwarzenegger also weighs in against it.
By Dan Morain, Times Staff Writer



SACRAMENTO -- Ward Connerly all but conceded defeat Saturday on Proposition 54, his ballot measure to restrict the government collection of racial and ethnic data, after Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante said he would spend nearly $4 million to defeat it and Arnold Schwarzenegger also indicated his opposition.

Bustamante's move is the result of a strategic shift in his campaign for governor. Hoping to defuse an issue that has dogged him on the campaign trail, his chief strategist said, the lieutenant governor is abandoning plans to advertise his candidacy using the nearly $4 million from labor unions and casino-owning Indian tribes.

Instead, he will spend the campaign cash on television commercials featuring himself denouncing Proposition 54, which will share the Oct. 7 ballot with the recall.

"Gulp," Connerly said when informed of the decision. A nearly $4-million campaign against his measure, he said, "probably dooms" it. "I'm never throwing in the towel. But I've been around the block. There is no way we can match that." (snip/...)

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/recall/la-me-recall7sep07,1,313000.story?coll=la-home-headlines

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[markses]

1. Good

These people are scum: When they can't convince people that systemic racism no longer exists - because the statistics still demonstrate that it does, they attempt to take away the capacity to produce those statistics, pretending that taking down the evidence is itself racism! They are really unbelievable scum. I saw Tweety Matthews compare Prop 54 to Martin Luther King's dream of a "colorblind" society. It was a sickening display.

[wryter2000]

2. Yahoo

If Cruz didn't already have my vote, he would have won it with this.

:bounce:

[Jack Rabbit]

3. The Racial Prviacy Initiative is an even worse idea than the recall

At least one can make a case for stating that Davis is a poor governor. Proposition 54, the Racial Privacy Initiative, will in effect limit debate by outlawing the gathering of information.

One may, if one likes, make a case for Proposition 209, the Mr. Connerly's initiative that outlawed affirmative action. However, if one were to ask if those who benefitted from affirmative action are worse off today than before the passage of Prop 209, one would need to look at statistics correlating race to employment, housing, health, law enforcement and business opportunities.

If Proposition 54 passes, there will be no way to tell how well or how poorly the experiment in abolishing affirmitive action has worked.

Democracy assumes an informed public openly discussing civic affairs. It makes no sense under any circumstances to make the gathering of information about civic affairs more difficult.

[Ernesto]

4. Is there a state out there

that might want a slightly used "Uncle Tom"? Now that the $750,000 a year whore is getting his ass kicked again, maybe he'll leave California. Any takers for Ward Connerly?