LINCOLN Neb.
A battle over affirmative action will be fought in Nebraska heading into the 2008 presidential election, part of a California group’s multistate plan to bar race and gender as a factor in hiring and admissions decisions.
A proposed amendment to the Nebraska Constitution would 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.”
Nebraska is one of five states being targeted by the California group Super Tuesday for Equal Rights. It is backed by Ward Connerly, who has helped squash affirmative action at public institutions, namely colleges and universities, in California, Washington and Michigan over the past decade.
A voter-approved ban in Michigan last year emboldened organizers. Now the group plans to push for voter-approved bans in Nebraska, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri and Oklahoma heading into the November 2008 election.
“After the win in Michigan, there’s a national momentum for ending our giving preferences to hiring and admitting people born with different physical characteristics,” said Doug Tietz of the Super Tuesday organization.
“The average Nebraskans is fair-minded … and every person should be treated fairly regardless of some physical characteristic they were born with,” said Tietz, a Nebraska native and executive director of the Nebraska campaign.
