Opinion: Ward Connerly Gets Rich Off Of Opposing Affirmative Action

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Conservative anti-affirmative action activist Ward Connerly was supposed to have a great year in 2008. He wrote a biography in 2000 entitled Creating Equal: My Fight Against Racial Preferences and it was supposed to be re-released in February. His current book, Lessons From My Uncle James was supposed to hit the bookstores this summer. He was supposed to be the driving force behind a series of ballot initiatives aimed at eliminating affirmative action practices in public education, contracting and employment.

He originally wanted the ballot initiatives in ten states. It was scaled back to five and now to only two because of legal challenges and organized opposition to them. His biography has been absent from most bookstores and his latest book has been delayed for some unknown reason.

Connerly did have some past successes when his non profit groups passed anti-affirmative action measures as ballot initiatives in the following states and years: California in 1996, Washington in 1998 and Michigan in 2006.

Connerly has profited handsomely from his efforts. The American Conservative reports the following: ''As an activist, Connerly has made millions opposing affirmative action. As a businessman and consultant, he has also made hundreds of thousands in large part because of it.''

Connerly has two nonprofit organizations, the American Civil Rights Institute and the American Civil Rights Coalition. He also has a private for-profit consulting firm entitled Connerly and Associates.

From 1999-2005, his two non-profit groups didn't challenge a single affirmative-action law. However, he raised nearly $2 million per year. The American Conservative reports how Connerly has reaped the rewards from his non-profit groups and his for-profit consulting firm: ''In 1998, 22 percent of his nonprofits' revenue was paid to Connerly in salary or to his firm. By 2001, Connerly's salary and the fees charged by Connerly and Associates ate up 49 percent of the nonprofits' combined revenue. Most of the money paid to the firm was listed on tax forms as ''speaking fees.'' In 2006, when Connerly took up a concrete goal in political activism--ending Michigan's affirmative-action policies-the cut of nonprofit revenue paid to him and his firm rose to 66 percent of total receipts, nearly $1.6 million.''

In a sort of convoluted work schedule, Connerly's non profits employ him for 30 hours per week and two others employ him full time. The non profit groups hire him from Connerly and Associates to make speeches.

Democratic Congressmen John Conyers and Charles Rangel asked the IRS to look into his financial dealings in 2006. After that, Connerly changed procedures with his nonprofits. A board reviews his salary.

The American Conservative magazine quotes Connerly regarding his payment: ''It's based on a formula that is devised by our auditors and accountants-a base salary of $300,000 and then compensation for speeches and things. I pay Connerly and Associates for those services out of fundsI receive for ACRI, so they [Connerly and Associates] in fact became a sub-contractor to me.''

During Connerly's push in California during 1996 for Proposition 54 which would have banned the Golden State from collecting racial data on its employees or students, the American Civil Rights Coalition was sued for violating campaign finance laws. Information gathered from the settlement included grocery magnate John Uhlmann and media mogul Rupert Murdoch as two of Connerly's doners.

Connerly was born in Louisiana at the start of World War II. He is one quarter black mixed with Irish, French and Choctaw Indian. His father left his mother when he was two and his mother subsequently died when he was four. He graduated with honors from Sacramento State College in political science. He worked in the California Department of Housing and Urban Development and served on various assembly committees. He became friends with Pete Wilson, who was a legislator at the time and later became governor.

He opened Connerly and Associates with his Ilene in 1973. He was chosen to the California Building Industry Hall of Fame which made him well known among the powerbrokers in the state.

Connerly was appointed to the University of California's Board of Regents in 1993. In 1994, the California GOP got a majority in both houses of the state's General Assembly by advocating for Proposition 187 which prohibited public services for illegal aliens. Although passed by a majority of citizens as a ballot referendum question in 1994, the courts quickly overturned it and threw it out as unconstitutional.

When Connerly began opposing affirmative-action in 1994, his consulting firm was registered as a woman-and-minority-owned business. His firm was also receiving a $35,000 contract from the state of California to carry out energy conservation training. Also, due to noncompetitive bidding contracts, his firm received a state contract in 1992 worth $100,000 and one for $1.1 million in 1989.

In 1995, Connerly became chairman of the California Civil Rights Initiative campaign. He promoted Proposition 209 which would end state-sponsored affirmative action. Murdoch chipped in with $1 million to Republicans who supported the ballot initiative. It passed with 54 percent of the vote in 1996. Connerly founded his two nonprofit groups the following year.

Although Connerly has been verbally harassed by liberal blacks for years and being accused of being an ''Uncle Tom'' by them, he soon became a fixture of the conservative movement without much accomplishment.

Things haven't gone well for Connerly this year. The American Conservative reports the following: ''The contactors Connerly hired to obtain signatures are now battling over fees. '' This is in reference to the ballot initiatives.

Proposition 209 hasn't worked out the way that Connerly and other conservatives hoped that it would. Although minority enrollment at California's state universities decreased for the first year of its implementation, UCLA's administrators have gotten around it by instituting ''comprehensive reviews'' regarding enrollment. From 1998-2001, Hispanics were 1.8 times as likely as whites to be admitted and blacks 3.6 times as likely.

However, Connerly has done well for himself on a professional level. In 2005, he was awarded the Bradley Prize which is a $250,000 grant without any strings attached. The American Conservative magazine reports the following: ''The cofounder of Connerly's nonprofits, National Review president Thomas Rhodes, happens to sit on the board of the Bradley Foundation.''

For all his honors that the conservative moment has bestowed upon Ward Connerly, he has profited handsomely and affirmative action hasn't been reduced.