A review of records contain in Michigan’s campaign finance disclose database shows that the majority of contributions to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative came from individuals and organizations outside the state of Michigan. The committee attached to the ballot proposal received $1,425.263.47 in cash contributions and $299,157.13 in in-kind contributions in the 2006 election cycle. While it has always been clear that the Initiative was supported and brought to Michigan by the conservative California businessman Ward Connerly, who has been the public face of similar proposals around the country and who plans to bring anti-affirmative action ballot initiatives to other states, the campaign finance records reveal how exactly how much money came from out of state sources.
In the 2006 amended post-general report, numerous donations came from out of state contributors. Of this, $14,000 came from a George Daniels of Orlando (he contributed $65,001 overall), $5,000 from Nedrick McCune of Costa Mesta, California (he contributed $29,500 overall), and $5,000 from Stuart Millheiser Trust. While more than half of the total number of contributions in the period came from residents of Michigan, the majority of the larger donations came from out of state sources. An earlier finance report from this year shows that Ward Connerly’s American Civil Rights Coalition contributed a staggering $728,562.01 to the campaign in cash, as well as $15,784.62 in in-kind contributions. Another prominent entity on the right, the Center for Individual Rights, contributed $217,518 in in-kind contributions. That report showed a significant number of contributions coming from outside of Michigan, especially those of higher dollar amounts. A campaign finance report from 2005 does show at least one large donation from Grand Rapids, with Robert Browne of Timcor contributing $50,000 to the campaign. In 2005, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative was charged with laundering donors’ money through he American Civil Rights Coalition to disguise the real source, although that complaint was eventually dismissed by the Secretary of State’s office who ruled that individual donors to the American Civil Rights Coalition did not need to be listed on a contributions to a committee in Michigan. A look at records of contributions made to the American Civil Rights Coalition in Michigan’s Campaign Finance database show that the overwhelming majority of the money was listed as coming from either the American Civil Rights Coalition or Ward Connerly. The American Civil Rights Coalition’s contributors have included prominent rightwing funders and ideologues including Joseph Coors, Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, Jerry Hume of Citizens for America and the Heritage Foundation, and Bush family supporter Harlan R. Crow. Connerly’s American Civil Rights Institute has also received $5.1 million in funding from prominent far-right foundations including the Lynne and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Richard Mellon Scaiffe Foundation, and the John M. Olin Foundation.
A review of the campaign finance data reveals yet another tie between the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and the racist right. The database lists a contribution from John Tanton, one of the major players in the racist anti-immigrant movement. Tanton has been active in a host of groups, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). While Tanton’s contribution of $200 was small compared to the total amount of money raised, it is part of an overall pattern of support for Proposal 2 by the racist right. The Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist group, campaigned for the passage of Proposal 2 and eventually took credit for its passage. Two different sub-groups of the Ku Klux Klan–the Mystic Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan–endorsed the Proposal and collected signatures to place it on the ballot and did voter outreach. Ward Connerly himself had his own controversies with the racist right, with a photo of Connerly shaking the hand of a white supremacist leader being publish and Connerly praising the Ku Klux Klan for standing against affirmative action<. Even after the passage of Proposal 2, ties to the racist right continue to emerge, with a lawsuit overturning an injunction to delay implementation of Proposal 2 being filed by the Center for Individual Rights, an organization that has received funding from the Pioneer Fund, an organization that has funded research that attempts to “prove” the genetic inferiority of African-Americans.
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