Initiative to Uphold Affirmative Action Fails to Make Ballot

Supporters of a proposed statewide initiative that would uphold affirmative action programs in state government and universities have failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Roland Holmes said the group, Californians for Economic & Educational Opportunities, fell short of collecting the necessary 690,000 signatures by about 293,000.

But rather than concede defeat, group leaders withdrew the measure and submitted a new one, hoping to gather enough signatures on a second attempt, said Holmes, a Mission Viejo resident and a key force behind the proposed initiative.

Organizers must meet an April 19 deadline to place the measure on the November ballot.

The new proposal has the same language as the previous one except for a new sentence that would make the state’s affirmative action programs retroactive to Jan. 1, 1995.

That revision, Holmes said, would provide voters with an opportunity to “repair the damage” caused by the recent action to dismantle affirmative action in the University of California system.

Last week, Gov. Pete Wilson, UC Regent Ward Connerly and other backers of an initiative to ban most government-sponsored affirmative action programs submitted more than 1 million petition signatures to the secretary of state, ensuring their proposal will be on the ballot in November.

Wilson, Connerly and the California Republican Party are the driving forces behind the so-called California civil rights initiative.

Holmes, who is also a Republican and, like Connerly, an African American, said they were out-financed by Connerly’s group, which had raised $500,000 to qualify their initiative. By comparison, Holmes’ group raised about $7,000, he said.

“My fear is that we will revert to a good ol’ boy system of jobs and contracts,” Holmes said.

Holmes’ group is in a nearly impossible race to get enough signature petitions by April 19, said Alfred Charles, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office.