Trickery about petition alleged

BY RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Two area lawmakers say its circulators are deliberately misleading people about its intent.

Two Tulsa-area legislators said Monday that deceptive tactics are being used to gather signatures on an initiative petition that they say targets affirmative action.

Backers of the petition have said it is "anti-preference" but not anti-affirmative action.

"What this is about is fear and hate and misleading information," Rep. Jabar Shumate said Monday morning at a news conference at the Church of the Living God, 1559 E. Reading St.

Shumate said a petition drive worker approached him and "asked if I wanted to end discrimination in government employment," and then offered him a signature sheet.

"When I asked to see more information, she hurried off," he said.

His constituents have told him similar stories, Shumate said, leading him to believe that the campaign's workers are trying to get black people to sign the petition by misrepresenting its intent.

The petition, filed by W. Devin Resides, an Oklahoma City lawyer, acting in conjunction with the California-based American Civil Rights Institute, would place on a statewide ballot an amendment to Oklahoma's Constitution.

The amendment would prohibit preferences in state government based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.

Shumate and others at the news conference, including state Sen. Judy Eason-McIntyre, D-Tulsa, said the measure's real purpose is to disrupt state government's equal opportunity efforts and to energize conservative voters.

Resides could not be reached Monday for comment.

State officials said when the petition was filed in September that the state has no hiring or contracting preferences.

"We don't have quotas in Oklahoma," Shumate said Monday. "What we do have are excellent equal-opportunity policies."

Shumate said those policies allow state government to evaluate its hiring policies.

The petition's circulators have until Dec. 10 to collect 138,970 signatures.

Shumate said he will introduce legislation next session to tighten disclosure requirements for initiative petitions and allow residents to remove their names from petitions they've signed.

Randy Krehbiel 581-8365
randy.krehbiel@tulsaworld.com

MODERN INITIATIVE-PETITION CONTROVERSIES

1982: Voters approve parimutuel horse racing. A previous effort in 1974 had failed.

1984: County option liquor-by-the- drink approved after two previous efforts failed.

1990: Voters reject an initiative petition to repeal House Bill 1017, an education tax and reform effort. Voters also approve a petition for legislative term limits.

1992: Voters approve an initiative petition to limit the ability of the Legislature to raise taxes.

1994: Voters reject a lottery petition pushed by Gov. David Walters. The same year, voters approve a petition to limit the number of years anyone can serve in Congress. The U.S. Supreme Court later nullified the rule.

1996: Voters reject an initiative petition that would have rolled back property taxes.

2001: Circulators abandon a petition effort to make English the state’s official language.

2002: Voters approve an initiative petition to ban cockfighting. The petition had taken years to survive court challenges.

2005: Voters reject an initiative petition that would have raised fuel taxes for road projects.

2006: A petition dubbed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights is killed by the state Supreme Court. The court rejected many signatures because they were obtained by out-of-state circulators. Also, a petition effort to raise the state’s minimum wage failed to get enough signatures.

2007: The Oklahoma Supreme Court kills an initiative petition that would require 65 percent of education funding to be spent in classrooms. The court said short written descriptions at the top of each signature page did not fairly describe the proposal.

Associated Images:

State Rep. Jabar Shumate, D-Tulsa, talks with Regina Goodwin after a Monday press conference at which Shumate criticized an initiative-petition campaign.