BY MATTHEW HANSEN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Ward Connerly has proved himself the political equivalent of Superman over the past decade, flying through states and passing constitutional amendments that ban most forms of affirmative action.

Now, as the California businessman tries to pass such a ban in Nebraska, it appears that his opponents may have found something resembling kryptonite.

Defenders of current affirmative action policies are trying to disrupt Connerly's group at the outset at it tries to collect enough petition signatures to place the issue on the November ballot.<br><BR>
They send "blockers" who videotape petition circulators, document any alleged wrongdoing and discourage people from signing the petitions.

They accuse Connerly's group of deception and publicize cases in which minorities have signed the petition believing it would strengthen, not erode, affirmative action.

They employ aggressive legal strategies, challenge petition signatures and force the issue into court.

The new game plan is simple, says a leader of one national group that opposes Connerly.

"The key to defeating the initiative is to keep it off the ballot in the first place. That's the only way we're going to win," said Donna Stern, Midwest director for the Detroit-based By Any Means Necessary.

The new game plan is working better than earlier strategies. Connerly's group persuaded voters to ban race- and gender-based affirmative action in California, Washington and Michigan and successfully pushed Florida lawmakers to pass a similar ban.

Already this year, opponents in Oklahoma and Missouri managed to keep the question off the ballot in those states.

Legal challenges and intense opposition may have placed the initiatives in jeopardy in Colorado and Arizona, although Connerly says he still expects to reach the ballot in both states.

That leaves Nebraska, where the leaders of the main group opposing the ban, Nebraskans United, have signaled that they won't allow the proposed Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative onto the ballot without a fight.

David Kramer, the group's director, handed out video and audio clips last week that he said showed petition circulators breaking state laws.

Nebraskans United also may challenge the legality of how petition signatures were gathered, a move that could lead to a fight in Lancaster County District Court.

"They're selling this idea that I should be criticized for calling them out," Kramer said. "I say that if they could follow the law and get their signatures legally, then they wouldn't have a problem."

Connerly, in an interview, called the opposition's new strategy "desperation." He said Kramer is trying to take the focus off affirmative action because it's a losing political issue.

The anti-affirmative action leader pointed to a recent opinion poll, funded by the Connerly-affiliated Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative, as evidence that Nebraskans are on his side. It said that 71 percent of those surveyed favor ending preferences based on race, ethnicity and gender.

Connerly said that in Nebraska and elsewhere, affirmative action supporters are using "street thug tactics" like intimidation and videotaping to discourage people from signing petitions.

He reserved special disdain for a recent Nebraskans United radio ad that suggested that if people signed the petitions, their identities might be stolen.

"It's a heck of a thought they have, the thought that we've got to keep our own citizens from voting," Connerly said. "They are using tactics that challenge the legitimacy of a democracy."

But some of Connerly's opponents say they are fighting fire with fire.

Stern, of the By Any Means Necessary group, said Connerly's petition drives for a dozen years have misled voters — particularly minority voters — to believe that the ballot initiative supports existing race- and gender-based affirmative action programs.

Even the name of Connerly's group — the American Civil Rights Initiative — suggests that he's in lockstep with the civil rights movement, opponents say, when most civil rights leaders strongly oppose banning affirmative action.

"They ask people, 'Would you like to sign a petition to eliminate discrimination in Nebraska?'" Kramer said. "Well, gee, I don't know anybody who would be against that. It's such an offensive way to go about it."

Vicky Wright, 57, of Omaha, said she encountered that sort of confusion firsthand a month ago.

Wright, who is black, said a circulator persuaded her to sign the petition in front of Wright's downtown office, telling her that the initiative would make things fairer for minorities in Nebraska.

"She looked right at my face and she lied to me," said Wright, who didn't realize what she had signed until she read a newspaper article about the petition effort. "People need to know that this sort of thing is happening."

Regina Goodwin, a Tulsa resident, started a group in Oklahoma to oppose Connerly.

Goodwin and other volunteers took to the streets and told potential petition signers that the Ku Klux Klan supported the initiative. The white supremacy group endorsed the ban in Michigan, although Connerly eventually spoke out against that endorsement.

Her group also planned to challenge the validity of thousands of the signatures on the Oklahoma petitions — Goodwin said they counted 82 signatures listing the same home address and several different Michael Jordans.

But that challenge never materialized, because Connerly announced in April that he was ending his effort in that state.

Connerly said his group failed there because of Oklahoma's short time limit for petition drives — 90 days. Goodwin said the failure had much more to do with the sort of early and aggressive opposition Connerly hadn't faced before.

In Nebraska, Kramer hopes the proposed constitutional amendment banning affirmative action can be defeated by voters if it does reach the ballot.

He pointed to the so-called "taxpayer bill of rights" initiative two years ago that seemingly was favored by Nebraskans in opinion polls done over the summer but failed at the ballot box in November.

But both sides say the coming weeks will be crucial.

Nebraskans United will point out possible illegal behavior during the petition gathering effort after the petitions are turned in by the July 4 deadline.

Kramer said the group then may file a legal challenge to any ruling from Secretary of State John Gale that would put the proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot.

And, because of the opposition, leaders of the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative know they will need to hand in more signatures than the minimum 115,000 required, said Doug Tietz, the group's director.

"They've figured one thing out," Tietz said. Keeping the proposal off the ballot "is their only chance."