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| Nebraska vote sought on affirmative-action ban by Nate Jenkins LINCOLN, Neb. – A petition filed with Secretary of State John Gale all but guarantees Nebraska will be an affirmative-action battleground heading into the November 2008 election. Public institutions including colleges and universities would be barred from using race, sex and other factors in hiring and admissions decisions under the proposed constitutional amendment. The petition drive will be guided by a California-based group that has been successful squashing affirmative action in other states. Ward Connerly, a former University of California regent best known for dismantling state programs that gave preferences to minorities, is behind the petition. It would give Nebraska voters the chance next year to decide whether to bar "preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting." Organizers say they need at least 100,000 signatures to get the initiative on the ballot. Similar bans have been approved in California, Washington and Michigan. And the California-based group, Super Tuesday for Equal Rights, plans to push such bans in possibly four other states besides Nebraska over the next year: Arizona, Colorado, Missouri and Oklahoma. Connerly could not be reached to comment Wednesday but told The Associated Press earlier this year that, "if things unfold the way I am predicting they will unfold, I think we are witnessing the end of an era." Other states, including Texas and Florida, have rewritten their college-admission rules. A supporter of affirmative action in Nebraska said hiring and admitting students based on race and gender is done sparingly in the state, but such a ban would wipe out an important tool. "I think there are times ... when you have to do something deliberate to get a different mix and it's appropriate to use race as one of the things considered," said Jose Soto, a member of the American Association for Affirmative Action and the affirmative action officer at Southeast Community College in Lincoln. 10/11/07 |
