OMAHA, Neb.—A California group that opposes race-based affirmative action says Barack Obama’s former minister and Nebraska state Sen. Ernie Chambers believe in race preferences, but most Nebraskans don’t.
A radio ad airing across the state starts with the words of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright saying “God damn America.” Obama, a Democratic presidential candidate, cut ties with Wright after publicity over Wright’s racially charged comments.
The Nebraska ad is sponsored by the American Civil Rights Initiative, which is pushing measures in several states to bar public entities from giving preferential treatment on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.
The Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative is collecting signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the state’s November ballot.
Chambers blasted the ad Tuesday, saying it’s meant to frighten people.
“It indicates the depth of racism that those who put out the ad believe exists in Nebraska,” said Chambers, the Legislature’s only black senator. “I think those people must believe that I am more hated in Nebraska than I am.”
The campaign is “one of most the insidious, deceptive activities that I witnessed in a long time,” he said.
A message left for Wright Tuesday afternoon wasn’t immediately returned.
Supporters of the measure say it levels the playing field, giving everyone an equal chance at every job.
Opponents say it plays to people’s fears that unqualified minorities are being picked over qualified non-minorities. Affirmative action doesn’t mean giving preferences to minorities, they say, it’s about ensuring good-faith efforts to recruit minority candidates and keeping people accountable for their hiring decisions.
Nebraska is one of five states targeted this year by the American Civil Rights Initiative’s Super Tuesday for Equal Rights Fund, founded by California businessman and activist Ward Connerly.
Connerly has prevailed three times in past elections, with voters in California, Michigan and Washington approving proposals banning government-sponsored race and gender preferences in public education, state hiring and public contracts.
This year, organizers in Missouri have conceded that too few signatures would be gathered by the deadline, and they bowed out in Oklahoma in the face of challenges to the signatures gathered there. Efforts continue in Colorado and Arizona.
Doug Tietz, executive director of the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative, wouldn’t say Tuesday how many signatures had been gathered but said he’s confident the group will have enough to get the measure on the November ballot. They’ll have to turn in about 114,000 signatures—10 percent of the state’s registered voters—by July 4.
Big bucks are flowing into the fight.
Opponents have raised more than $263,000—including a $50,000 donation from Omaha billionaire Warren Buffett, according to a filing with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission
The University of Nebraska Foundation gave $25,000 to Nebraskans United. The university has said the measure could eliminate some measures the university now uses to increase and promote diversity, such as recruitment of students from other countries, trying to attract more minority candidates for faculty positions and events aimed at minority students.
The Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative has raised more than $181,000, mostly from the American Civil Rights Initiative’s Super Tuesday for Equal Rights Fund.
New York businessman Paul Singer has given $50,000 to backers of the measure. Singer has made sizable donations to political candidates including former presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani. He also gave thousands to political action groups such as the Swift Veterans and POWS for Truth, which campaigned in 2004 against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
Earlier this year, state Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial withdrew a proposed constitutional amendment with similar language because of pressure from senators who threatened to torpedo his other bills.
Chambers said some senators didn’t understand what Christensen’s measure would do until it was explained to them. He said he hopes Nebraskans aren’t “easily bamboozled.”
Marc Schniederjans, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor, said he filed the petition because of a blatantly discriminatory incident at the university, which he wouldn’t describe.
David Kramer—former chairman of the state Republican Party, is working with the opponents, and said the petition initiative isn’t a political issue.
“This is not something that there was mass outrage in Nebraska about and a public outpouring of support for change,” Kramer said. “This is manufactured by people from California.”
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