ALEC and the Arizona legislature: anti-Affirmative Action Initiative

by David Safier

In 2010, Prop 107, whose purpose was to end affirmative action in Arizona's schools, public employment and public contracting, was passed by the voters. The proposition has a long history which began in California in 1996, made its way into ALEC's model legislation database, passed in Washington, Michigan and Nebraska, and came to Arizona using the same language as the previous initiatives.

If the name Ward Connerly means anything to you, you know the history of his anti-affirmative action crusade. He got the ball rolling in California in 1996 by spearheading the movement to ban "preferential treatment" in education as well as other aspects of state government, in the name of civil rights. Martin Luther King's name is often wrongly invoked by these people who purposely distort MLK's message of equality for their own discriminatory ends.

After the bill passed in California in 1996, it became part of ALEC's growing storehouse of model legislation. ALEC's up-is-down name for the resolution is the Civil Rights Act. Connerly has remained a major force behind this initiative, but having it as part of ALEC's agenda made it far easier to disseminate. ALEC members had the initiative served up to them without Connerly having to reach out to each of them individually.

The initiative passed in Washington in 1998, Michigan in 2006 and Nebraska in 2008. In 2009, it came to Arizona. Its prime sponsor was Russell Pearce.

The Arizona version, SCR1031, is identical to all the others. Pearce, however, wasn't satisfied merely to be a sponsor. He claimed authorship for a measure he cut-and-pasted from the ALEC model. In a newsletter he sent out after he was elected Senate President (headed "Dear Friends and Fellow Patriots"), Pearce claimed credit for a number of bills under the heading, "AUTHOR OF HISTORIC LEGISLATION." He lists this resolution under that heading.

I've created a document with the Arizona resolution, SCR1031, and the ALEC model side by side so you can see how the two versions line up. To make it easier, I've color coded the passages where the versions differ.

UNFORGIVABLE OVERSIGHT UPDATE: Lisa Hoffman did a phenomenal amount of digging and research to pull the information together on this issue. In the heat of writing this post, I forgot to give her a well deserved hat tip. My apologies. The oversight is hereby corrected.