Tag: Amendment 46

Unreported remarks by Independence Institute president Jon Caldara at the Denver "Tea Party" protest may have brought wild cheers from the teabagging throng. But the invoking of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech — after Caldara and crew attempted to repeal affirmative action protections in Colorado — is nothing short of abhorrent.

Some in Colorado remembered the sacrifices of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. a bit early, on Election Day, rather than the national holiday to commemorate his life. The election of the nation's first African American president overshadowed another step forward in the struggle for equality — the defeat of Amendment 46 which would have rolled back decades of civil rights law.

The Vote No on Amendment 46 campaign isn't the only group pleased to see the anti-affirmative action measure lose, albeit on a teensy margin Thursday afternoon. Several people who launched complaints that they were misled into signing onto the proposal have also expressed happiness that the measure flopped.

After a two day post-election limbo, Colorado's Amendment 46 failed yesterday on a slim margin. The so-called Colorado Civil Rights Initiative is the first anti-affirmative action amendment propped by California businessman Ward Connerly to make it onto a state ballot and flop. The significance is not lost on Amendment 46's detractors. "I am thrilled," says Melissa Hart, a University of Colorado law professor who co-ran the Vote No on 46 campaign. "Given that everyone kept telling us we couldn't do it, it is exciting that we did."

Anti-affirmative-action guru Ward Connerly will likely halt his nationwide push to end race and gender preferences. Connerly, a part black California businessman, spoke with the Colorado Independent an hour after Amendment 46 toppled by an extremely thin margin. The so-called Colorado Civil Rights Initiative was the first Connerly amendment to flop after making it onto a state ballot. It was also a key measure in Connerly's Super Tuesday for Equal Rights campaign, a nationwide thrust to dismantle affirmative action programs in five states this year. In three of those states, the measure failed to make it onto the ballot, and Thursday, after a feverishly close tally, it collapsed in Colorado. Nebraska was the only state this year to approve the proposal.

Amendment 46, the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative, has failed. The Rocky Mountain News just posted the outcome of the race on its election results page; the contest was in limbo for the past day and a half.

The Colorado Civil Rights Initiative is still treading water, with the result too close to call. County clerks in Boulder and Adams Counties are still counting ballots which could tip Amendment 46 one way or another. Though anti-affirmative action initiative is trailing very slightly in the polls, opponents are reluctant to call a victory just yet.

The Colorado Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot measure seeking to end affirmative action in the state, has not yet been called.

Colorado's gargantuan ballot includes more than 14 constitutional amendments and referenda even after four measures were withdrawn on Oct. 2 by proponents after a surprise alliance of labor and business interests joined forces to oppose three anti-union amendments that remain. The Colorado Independent is putting the press to the test — we're compiling newspaper endorsements, analyzing them and then tracking the persuasive talents of editorial boards statewide.

There are good robocalls and there are bad robocalls. And then there are robocalls that pretend not to be robocalls.