Senate Panel Kills Plan to Abolish Affirmative Action

Another round of bills to abolish state affirmative action programs went down to defeat early Wednesday.

The Assembly Higher Education Committee killed proposals to eliminate state policies that grant preferences to women and selected minorities in public hiring and college admissions.

The bills were authored by Assemblyman Bernie Richter (R-Chico), one of the leaders in the Legislature’s efforts to eliminate affirmative action.

Along with similar defeats in other key committees, Wednesday’s votes laid the groundwork for a 1996 affirmative action ballot initiative that is expected to generate an emotional political battle along the lines of last year’s Proposition 187.

Affirmative action is already driving a wedge between Democrats and Republicans. Gov. Pete Wilson has come out strongly in favor of ending such preferences. He is exploring a GOP presidential bid.

The latest bills earned just four of the six votes needed to pass the 10-member committee.

Late Tuesday, five ministers strode to the front of the hearing room singing “We Shall Overcome,” a civil rights anthem. They were arrested and removed by State Police. The ministers, four blacks and one white, were cited for disrupting a public assembly and face a Superior Court hearing May 5.

Richter argued that affirmative action is unfair. But supporters of affirmative action said the nation is still hurting from the decades of discrimination, and that racial bias still exists.

Last week, a state Senate committee killed a proposed constitutional amendment to end affirmative action preferences in state government. Other bills have also failed this year.