Group pushing for Missouri ballot measure

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A former college administrator wants Missouri to adopt an anti-affirmative-action measure to end what he calls race-based "preferential treatment" in state-sponsored programs.

Tim Asher, a former admissions director at North Central Missouri College, is behind a group that believes Missouri should follow the lead of California, Washington and Michigan in passing a ballot measure that addresses public contracting, education and employment.

"The citizens of Missouri deserve no less ... than to be treated equally under the law," Asher said Tuesday.

Asher said he became convinced Missouri needed an anti-affirmative action measure when he complained about a diversity scholarship the college offered for underrepresented minorities. The college has since changed the scholarship.

Opponents of affirmative action, led by the American Civil Rights Institute, pushed for a similar ballot measure in California in 1996. Initiatives are also planned for Colorado, Oklahoma and Arizona, said Ward Connerly, the institute's chairman.

Connerly could not identify any specific "race preferences" or "gender preferences" that he opposes in Missouri, but said some contractors have expressed concern about women-owned and minority-owned business participation programs.

An anti-affirmative-action initiative "is liberating people like me from the last legacy of bondage," said Connerly, who is multiracial. Connerly believes affirmative action programs send the message that women and minorities require special treatment.

To be included on the 2008 ballot, the initiative requires signatures equal to 5 percent of the voters in the previous gubernatorial race in at least six congressional districts.

Anita Russell, president of the Kansas City branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said her organization plans to oppose the ballot initiative.

"We support affirmative-action policies and practices by the state to ensure equal access for minorities and women," Russell said.

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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com