Deconstructing the Ballot Initiative Conference Brings Together Activists and Scholars

On April 16th, SALT and University of Denver Sturm College of Law co-sponsored an exciting conference, bringing together activists from Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and Nebraska, along with national civil rights figures, to discuss the use of the state ballot initiative to outlaw affirmative action.  Organized by SALT members Melissa Hart (University of Colorado) and Roberto Corrada (University of Denver), with former SALT co-presidents Margaret Martin Barry and Deborah Post, the conference’s aim was  to understand the lessons learned from the November 2008 election cycle in Arizona, Oklahoma, and Missouri, where the “civil rights initiative” proposed by Ward Connerly and the American Civil Rights Institute failed to be certified for the ballot, Nebraska where it won, and Colorado where Connerly was handed his first state ballot initiative defeat.

As of today, Arizona voters are facing a legislative-passed initiative to ban affirmative action in public education, employment, and contracting in November 2010.  An identical Utah legislative initiative was thwarted in committee, but is likely to be reintroduced. 

The conference began on Thursday evening with a welcoming dinner, hosted by Dean Martin Katz, with the program officially beginning on Friday morning with a presentation by Shannon Minter, National Center for Lesbian Rights, discussing California’s Proposition 8, which annulled the California Supreme Court’s decision to permit same-sex marriage.  A morning panel examined the successful campaign in Colorado in November 2008, in which national expertise on polling and messaging, offered by Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, helped inform local activists.  The panel, moderated by Ellen Buchman from the Leadership Conference, analyzed the messaging, use of a proposed alternative ballot initiative, grassroots organizing, and legal strategies used successfully in Colorado.  A full and candid discussion followed with questions asked by participants facing local challenges. 

During a working lunch, veterans from the 2008 elections discussed the strategies that worked and didn’t work in their states, followed by a lively question and answer period.  Finally, the conference examined the role of legal scholarship in understanding the continued need for programs that promote racial equity, effective messaging that works with voters, and the need for research to back up or dispel claims made in these contentious elections.  john powell, Kirwan Institute, Ohio State University; Cheryl Harris, UCLA Law School; and Angela Onwuachi-Willig offered challenges to law faculty to engage in related research. 

A dinner hosted by Professor Melissa Hart at her home permitted informal conversations that continued the conference and truly created new alliances for future work. 

SALT thanks Dean Martin Katz, University of Denver Sturm College of Law for his generous support and the Leeds Family for the grant that made this conference possible.