Colorado Unity, the statewide coalition dedicated to preserving and promoting equal opportunity, has launched a "Decline to Sign" campaign to inform Colorado voters about the impact of petitions currently being circulated for an anti-affirmative action ballot initiative funded by California millionaire Ward Connerly.

"Colorado voters must know that though this is billed as the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative, signing those petitions could very well mean just the opposite – the end of even the most modest of equal opportunity and affirmative action programs in Colorado," commented Linda Meric, a Colorado Unity Co-Chair.

In mid September, an evenly-split Colorado Supreme Court cleared the way for the petitions to be carried when the court upheld language in the proposed ballot initiative.  Now, Connerly's group needs to collect a requisite 76,000 voter signatures to place the question on the November 2008 ballot.

"Since Colorado has some of the lowest signature thresholds in the nation for ballot initiatives we realize that it's likely that the signatures will be collected by the proponents of this misleading initiative," said Colorado Unity Co-Chair Bill Vandenberg.  "But voters must also be aware of the unscrupulous track record of this group in other states [1].  They have gathered signatures using half-truths, outright lies and complete deception.  They have even told people that their signatures would preserve affirmative action.  They have said anything to win and we cannot let that happen in Colorado."

"Based on their poor track record for the truth," Meric added, "we want to be proactive about the petitions. Colorado voters need to know that this is an attempt to fool them and they must guard against it by declining to sign the petitions."

Those who witness or hear about troubling occurrences involving the Connerly petition carriers are asked to report those incidents to Colorado Unity by calling 303.628.3895.

Linda Meric: 303.520.3177
or
Bill Vandenberg: 720.291.5621

[1] Report of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission Regarding the Use of Fraud and Deception in the Collection of Signatures for the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative Ballot Petition, June 7, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dusti Gurule
303-572-0013
dusti@latinainitiative.org

Denver, CO – The Latina Initiative (LI) begins the New Year with the addition of second full time staff person. Maria De Cambra, formerly the Statewide Hispanic Outreach Director for Coloradans for Fairness, has been hired on as the Program Coordinator and will implement and manage LI’s programs.

“Maria brings an abundance of experience and energy to the organization and will play a significant role in the implementation and growth of our Serious Women, Serious Issues, Serious Action project and will broaden our outreach model to inform and empower even more Latinas and their families,” said Dusti Gurule, Executive Director.

As the Hispanic Outreach Director for Coloradans for Fairness, Maria successfully developed relationships with Latina/o organizations and groups from throughout Colorado. Additionally, Maria brings three years professional experience with volunteer management, community outreach and relationship building. She is fluent in English and Spanish and is a host on the 1150 am La Buena Onda radio show, Mente demente.

The mission of the Latina Initiative is to cultivate, support and maintain the civic involvement of Latinas in Colorado.

# # #

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dusti Gurule
303-572-0013
dusti@latinainitiative.org

Denver, CO – The Latina Initiative (LI) receives status as a self regulating 501c3 nonprofit organization from the Internal Revenue Service on August 11, 2006. Founded in 2002, the Latina Initiative operated under the fiscal sponsorship of Mi Casa Resource Center until 2005 when the organization began its own journey to build organizational infrastructure and capacity.

LI works to solidify the immense political potential within Colorado’s growing Latina population through grassroots action. LI is a non-partisan voter outreach, mobilization, civic engagement, and advocacy organization whose mission is to cultivate, support and maintain the civic involvement of Latinas in Colorado. LI is the premier nonprofit increasing civic engagement of the Latina community.

LI’s organizational/strategic goals are that:

• The Latina community will be able to speak articulately and act effectively to influence the decision and policy makers about the issues that effect their families and communities,
• LI will have mutually beneficial, deliberate and defined partnerships, to influence the decision and policy makers, with organizations working on issues effecting the Latina community,
• LI will be recognized as the resource for information, support, education on getting involved in issues impacting the Latina community,
• LI will have the funding to support the strategic goals and have established diverse and stable funding sources, and
• LI will be recognized as fully functioning, effective, efficient, credible and accountable 501 c3.
  

The low voter turnout and civic participation of the Latina/o community directly affects the decisions being made about numerous issues including health care, the economy, education and the environment. When a significant population is being left out of the decision making process and does not have power to affect the decision makers the policies that are created do not represent the state of Colorado. Often, disenfranchised populations are either disregarded or tokenized by those groups traditionally involved in the electoral process. The role of LI is to act as the culturally relevant trusted advisor to increase civic engagement and therefore increase the power of the Latina/o community to affect the issues that affect their communities.

To address this lack of connection to and understanding of the mechanics of politics, the LI aims to reach thousands of Latinas through a variety of proven Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) strategies to increase long term voter and civic participation rates among this demographic. This campaign will expand upon the community visibility and voter outreach efforts of the 2004 and 2005 Latina Initiative voter mobilization to increase the civic participation of Latinas in Denver, Boulder and Adams counties.

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Fall of 2004: Voices Newsletter (PDF)