“They’re going to have to reject [the initiative or avoid an issue that core Democrats care about.”
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3124
By Walter Alarkon
Republicans and Democrats have taken turns blaming election losses on wedge-issue ballot initiatives. Democrats say that gay marriage bans helped President Bush and Republicans turn out the conservative vote in 11 states in 2004, while Republicans believe that a stem cell research vote put them on the defensive during congressional races in 2006.
The ballot initiative wedge issue of 2008 may be affirmative action, which could help Republicans.
A conservative group hopes to pass initiatives amending state constitutions in five states — Missouri, Colorado, Arizona, Nebraska and Oklahoma — that would ban race and gender preferences in state government hiring and public education. Liberal groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), are trying to keep them off the ballot.
“I see it, rhetorically, more putting Democrats in a tough spot,” said David Kimball, a political scientist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “They’re going to have to reject [the initiative.”The anti-affirmative action initiatives could play a role in the presidential race, with Colorado and Missouri looking like swing states and with Democrats nominating either a woman, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), or an African-American, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), Kimball said.
A stem cell ballot initiative played a central role in Missouri’s 2006 Senate race between Democrat Claire McCaskill and then-Sen. Jim Talent (R). McCaskill hammered Talent for his opposition to an initiative allowing stem cell research in their state. Her most memorable campaign ad featured actor Michael J. Fox, visibly affected by Parkinson’s disease, calling on voters to back the Democrat because she supported stem cell research. Both McCaskill and the initiative won by 50,000 votes, which was less than 3 percent of the vote.