So-Called 'Michigan Civil Rights Initiative' Not Funded by Michigan Residents
Feature Story by Ritu Kelotra - 9/3/2004
A new report reveals that 100 percent of the funding for Michigan's anti-affirmative action campaign comes from outside the state.The campaign – a ballot initiative planned for November 2006 – is led by the so-called Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI). MCRI reported its funding in early August.
The primary connection between MCRI and California is the campaign's sponsor, Ward Connerly, a California-based businessman and University of California regent. Connerly, who successfully led anti-affirmative ballot initiatives in California and Washington state, heads the California-based American Civil Rights Coalition, which the report revealed contributed 95 percent of MCRI's funds.
"This [report] is part of the pattern. This is a California campaign run by California people with California ideas on how to change Michigan's constitution, which is working very well," said David Waymire, spokesman for Citizens for a United Michigan, which was formed to oppose the ballot proposal.
MCRI listed no Michigan donors to the ballot drive, according to the report. Supporters of affirmative action in Michigan said that the lack of funding from Michigan-based sources shows that the initiative is being imposed on Michigan citizens.
"It shows this was not an effort that was driven by a need that Michiganders felt," Kary Moss, head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, told the Associated Press last week. "There is a small group from outside the state who have brought their agenda to Michigan."
Meanwhile, reports show that Waymire's group, Citizens for a United Michigan, received all of its contributions from Michigan-based sources.
