Wilson Poised for ‘Colorblind’ Stand on Laws

Hitching his political wagon to another red-hot issue with controversial implications for race relations, Gov. Pete Wilson will announce his support today for an expected ballot measure that would gut state affirmative action programs, sources said Friday.

Wilson, who campaigned in favor of the anti-illegal immigration Proposition 187 during his bid for reelection last year, has already indicated that he believes that affirmative action programs are unfair and that state law should be “colorblind.”

But sources close to the governor said that in a speech to about 2,000 delegates attending the state Republican convention in Sacramento this weekend, Wilson will throw his support behind the effort to place the idea on the ballot next year and pass it into law.

“I don’t think you can be the governor of this state and not become involved when there is a major initiative on the ballot,” Wilson said in a recent interview with The Times. “It is wrong and unfair to award a preference on the basis of membership in an ethnic group . . . just as it is wrong to sanction racial discrimination.”

Wilson’s office, and the state Republican leadership, have tried to avoid presidential politics during the weekend convention, but Wilson’s expected comments are likely to fuel further speculation that he is weighing a bid for the White House.

Wilson’s announcement is sure to be welcomed by GOP conservatives, who strongly support the so-called California civil rights initiative and who have typically had strained relations with Wilson, whom they consider too moderate on some issues.

Sponsors of the initiative have not begun to collect signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot. But because of the widespread support for the idea reflected in surveys, they expect that the qualification process will be a formality and that the measure will be on the ballot in either March or November next year.

The initiative, and an identical measure now before the Legislature, would amend the state Constitution to gut all but the most passive forms of government-sponsored affirmative action for women and minorities, specifically targeting state and local hiring and admissions to California schools.

Already, the issue that would remove racial preference or set-aside programs in government hiring and school admissions has been political dynamite, triggering strong reactions from both sides.

Earlier this month, state Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) issued a passionate defense of affirmative action programs and warned supporters of the proposed ballot measure that they are practicing “racism.”

In an interview with The Times, Wilson dismissed the criticism, saying that the same complaints were raised last year when he supported Proposition 187, the measure to halt public education and other benefits for illegal immigrants.

Proposition 187 “was attacked as being racist and clearly was not, (because) you don’t get a 60% vote across racial lines for something that is racist,” Wilson said. “The idea is that if you call someone a racist, they will shudder at that accusation and retreat.”

As he has in the past, Wilson loomed as a divisive element at the state party convention, since the No. 1 topic for the weekend is expected to be the possibility of a Wilson bid for the White House next year. In hallway gossip and committee debates at the Sacramento Hyatt Regency Hotel, delegates split between those excited about the idea of another California Republican in the White House and those who have never warmed to Wilson’s politics.

At the convention hotel Friday, the two top state GOP leaders both skirted questions about a possible Wilson candidacy and its impact on the state, particularly the fact that if Wilson won, Democratic Lt. Gov. Gray Davis automatically would become governor.

State party Chairman Tirso del Junco, a Los Angeles surgeon, said he had weighed that consequence and still is prepared to support Wilson for the presidency if that is what the governor decides.

Asked how he could accept the possibility of turning the governor’s office over to a Democrat for two years, del Junco would only say, “I think that Gray Davis is not somebody who any Republican with a straight face can take seriously.”

Del Junco added, “It is great to have a Californian in the presidency of the United States.”

The man who will succeed Del Junco as chairman Sunday, former U.S. Energy Secretary John Herrington of Walnut Creek, said he does not think the convention should adopt a resolution that urges Wilson to serve all four years of his new term.

“It’s a nothing,” Herrington said of the resolution, offered by leaders in the party’s conservative wing. “It’s meaningless.”

Del Junco also said he thought it would be “presumptive” of the party to seek to tell Wilson whether he should or should not run for President.