Friday, Jul 4, 2008
The Florida governor's kindler, gentler affirmative action reform draws a firestorm of protest from the very people it aims to help.
Feb 10, 2000 | George W. Bush's younger brother Jeb was on a roll. After resoundingly defeating Democrat Buddy McKay in November 1998 to become the governor of Florida, he had been enjoying a honeymoon through 1999. Working with Republican majorities in the state's House and Senate, a luxury not afforded a Florida governor since Reconstruction, Bush had been able to pass much of his agenda, including a controversial school voucher program.
Maybe most remarkably, Bush was putting together a multiracial coalition rare among Republicans. Fluent in Spanish and married to a native of Mexico, he has always enjoyed strong support among the mostly conservative Cuban-American community in South Florida. Lately his appeal to other Hispanics across the state appeared to be increasing as well. And, in part as a result of infighting among Democrats, Bush even had managed to pick up some black support.
In his losing 1994 campaign, Bush had responded to a question about what he would do for blacks if elected by saying, "Probably nothing." Since then Bush has sent out a different message stressing "diversity," and had seemed well on his way to repairing the damage caused by his earlier statements.
Now, in a stunning turnaround, a proposal that Bush says will increase minority enrollment in public universities and boost state procurement from minority-owned firms has drawn a firestorm of protest from the very people it's supposed to help. His One Florida Initiative was intended as a kinder, gentler end to affirmative action than the constitutional amendment now being pushed in the state by Ward Connerly and his allies, which generally copies California's Proposition 209.
The lesson instead may be that there is no easy way to avert a divisive fight over affirmative action. Rather than promoting a united Florida, the governor's plan has exposed, in stark relief, deep racial divisions in a state where the New South, the Sunbelt and the "new immigration" meet. Public hearings, the latest scheduled for Thursday in Tallahassee, have drawn huge, angry crowds. The controversy has eroded Bush's modest gains among blacks, alienated many women and upset some Hispanics who had supported the Republican governor. The process has underscored the pitfalls and limitations of "compassionate conservatism" and the Republican outreach to minority voters.
How did it go so wrong? Most early reviews of the governor's plan were generally positive. The educational component, which would guarantee enrollment in a public university to the top 20 percent of high school graduates, received early support from a black leader in the Legislature. But then a majority of black political leaders rejected the plan and persuaded their colleague to reverse course.
Blacks resented not having been included in its design, charged that it would decrease black enrollment in the most prestigious campuses and in professional and graduate programs, and felt the procurement component relied entirely on the goodwill of the state's chief executive. In the absence of reliable data, it is hard to sort out competing claims, but the University of Florida, one of the state's top universities, estimates that black enrollment there would drop from 611 to 204 and that Hispanic enrollment would fall from 709 to 492.
The turning point that transformed a policy proposal into an emotional civil rights confrontation came in January in the Capitol. Sen. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, and Rep. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, wanted to meet with Bush to press their demand that the governor rescind a November 1999 executive order that effectively ended racial and gender preferences in education and state contracting. Bush refused. Aides to the governor told Meek and Hill they would "wait a long time to see the governor" and "should bring a blanket." It was the wrong time for sarcasm, the wrong people to challenge and the wrong place for a showdown.
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