Connerly Campaign Contribution Lawsuit Settled, Proposition 54 Backers Disclosed
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 5/20/2005
Records released under a court settlement late Wednesday show that Proposition 54, affirmative action opponent Ward Connerly's unsuccessful ballot initiative, was funded largely through donations from a handful of wealthy individuals to Connerly's nonprofit group, the American Civil Rights Coalition (ACRC).The California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) had filed the complaint against ACRC and Connerly, its chair, after the ACRC failed to report sources of almost $2 million in campaign contributions to its Proposition 54 Committee.
As a follow up to Connerly's Proposition 209 campaign, which ended affirmative action programs in the state, Proposition 54 aimed to ban California from collecting racial data in all but a few exempted areas. The initiative was defeated in 2003 (63 percent-36 percent).
Under the terms of the settlement, ACRC agreed to pay a $95,000 civil penalty, acknowledge that they had failed to comply with election laws requiring disclosure of campaign donors, and file reports disclosing the contributions.
According to the ACRC reports, out of $1.7 million that ACRC received for the initiative, $1.3 million came from just six contributors.
The Sacramento Bee reported Thursday that top contributors to ACRC included John Moores, owner of the San Diego Padres major-league baseball team ($400,000), media giant Rupert Murdoch ($300,000), retired brewery mogul Joseph Coors ($250,000 loan); Jerry Hume of San Francisco, president of a food processing company ($200,000); John Uhlmann, a Kansas City businessman ($190,000 loan); and Harlan Crow, a Dallas-based investor ($140,000).
The Proposition 54 committee had previously disclosed that almost 88% of its donations had come from funds funneled through ACRC, but Connerly had refused to reveal the names of donors who initially contributed to those funds.
The FPPC filed its suit after several civil rights groups - including California Common Cause, Californians for Justice, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law - sent a letter of complaint to the enforcement division of the California FPPC. The letter alleged that ACRC had violated the Political Reform Act of 1974, which requires that political action committees disclose the source of all contributions over $5,000.
