AFFIRMATIVE ACTION MEASURE TRAILING

Passage would repeal ban approved by voters in 1996

A national awakening on race drove a well-funded campaign in California to reinstate affirmative action, but the measure allowing the nation’s most populated state to grant preferential treatment based on race and gender was trailing in preliminary results released Tuesday night.

Public polling had indicated that Proposition 16 was struggling, suggesting that voters may not be ready to repeal a quarter-centuryold ban on affirmative action in public hiring, contracting and college admissions.

Supporters raised $31 million and include chambers of commerce, professional sports, tech companies and Democratic leaders. They say affirmative action programs are critical to undoing generations of systemic racism and sexism that holds back people of color and women.

In contrast, opponents have raised $1.6 million, fueled by smaller donations from a grassroots network that includes Chinese immigrants worried that public universities will bypass Asian American applicants with higher scores and grades in favor of lower-scoring African American and Latino students. They say discrimination should stay illegal.

“Its prospects are not great,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of a poll conducted by the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley. “My only explanation is that it’s fallen between the cracks.”

The survey of likely voters released Oct. 26 shows 49 percent opposed and 38 percent in favor, with greater support in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles but trailing everywhere else. A poll by the Public Policy Institute of California indicated similar trends.

The measure is polling evenly among Latinos and women, the survey shows. Democrats and African Americans appear to be supporting it, and there is less support among men and White people, the poll suggests.

Angel Chavez, 45, a San Diego tattoo artist and supporter of President Donald Trump, said he voted against the affirmative action measure.

“I’m Mexican. Yet, I’ve never felt racism.” he said. “If I don’t get a job, it’s because somebody was more qualified.”

In San Francisco, Harry Rochester, who voted for Joe Biden for president, said he was sad when voters banned affirmative action.

“Being an African American man in America, I don’t think I would have gotten as far as I have gotten today if it wasn’t for affirmative action,” said Rochester, 40.

Proposition 16 would repeal a ban on affirmative action programs approved by voters in 1996.