Ballot Measures

WASHINGTON -- A newly formed group of foes of affirmative action began putting pressure yesterday on all 50 state attorneys general to wipe out "the vast majority" of race preferences in state and local government.Calling itself the "Project for All Deliberate Speed," borrowing the phrase the Supreme Court used to order prompt obedience to its school desegregation decision, the group said state officials must act deliberately now to carry out recent Supreme Court court rulings sharply limiting race-based affirmative action.

WASHINGTON -- As a leading goal in his forthcoming legislative agenda, President Bush intends to push next year for a constitutional amendment to limit the length of service of members of Congress, White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu said yesterday.Mr. Sununu, in a speech at the National Press Club that reviewed the administration's legislative outlook, said, "There ought to be a change in some of the fundamental ways we govern ourselves."Mr. Bush will press for a term limitation amendment "that deals with the problems associated with perpetuating the public life of those who are elected," Mr. Sununu said.

SAN FRANCISCO - In a pattern of civil disobedience that concerns city officials, activists are turning increasingly mean as they demonstrate their distaste for what they call San Francisco's rampant dot-com development. Demonstrators have scratched the finishes on sport-utility vehicles, slashed the tires of imported luxury cars parked outside technology company offices, and thrown paint-filled balloons and sprayed graffiti on high-tech companies' buildings. San Francisco police have also reported several suspicious fires at dot-com offices in the city's Mission District, as well as anonymous threats against builders and high-tech company owners.

LOS ANGELES - While a measure to legalize marijuana in Nevada appeared to be losing, education ballot issues in California and Florida seemed to be headed for approval from voters yesterday. Emerging as arguably the most widely discussed measure was Nevada's Ballot Question 9, which inspired a variety of bad jokes about a high roller of another kind in Las Vegas. The Nevada initiative would have legalized recreational use of marijuana in quantities of 3 ounces or less for adults 21 and older.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to reconsider the free-speech rule that allows candidates to spend unlimited money to win election to public office. The campaign finance case is among 11 the justices agreed to take up after meeting behind closed doors Monday to go over more than 1,700 appeals that have awaited action since June. They include an Ohio case that tests whether states can offer huge tax breaks to corporations to lure them to build plants. Last year, a U.S. appeals court said these special tax breaks are unconstitutional.

Stewart Bainum Jr., who fought the Maryland lottery as a state lawmaker, left politics more than two decades ago. But the multimillionaire and hotel magnate is still playing a role in the debate over gambling in Maryland - he recently cut a $10,000 check to an organization that's working to sway voters against slot machines in the November referendum. Bainum, chairman of Choice Hotels International Inc., is part of a small crowd of well-heeled donors that the anti-slots movement is counting on for funding.

WASHINGTON -- New Year's Day will bring the ninth straight year in which the federal minimum wage has remained frozen at $5.15 an hour, marking the second-longest period that the nation has had a stagnant minimum wage since the standard was established in 1938. Against that backdrop, Democrats are preparing ballot initiatives in states across the country to boost turnout of Democratic-leaning voters in 2006. Labor, religious and community groups have launched efforts to place minimum-wage initiatives on ballots in Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Arkansas and Montana next fall.

The on-again, off-again debate over permitting slot machines in Cambridge might be decided by Dorchester County voters in the November election. Sen. Richard F. Colburn, a Republican who represents the Eastern Shore county, secured a crucial victory yesterday when the Senate approved an amendment permitting the November presidential ballot to ask Dorchester voters whether they support slot machines there. A final vote on the amended bill -- which includes the Dorchester straw ballot and a straw ballot question on a separate Talbot County issue -- is expected in the Senate today or tomorrow.

WASHINGTON -- Foes of affirmative action, making gains repeatedly in the Supreme Court but often stymied elsewhere in government, may have turned their political and legislative fortunes around in one giant step in Tuesday's elections.With a margin of nearly 750,000 votes out of 8.7 million cast, California voters approved Proposition 209 -- a sweeping assault on the use of race, sex or national origin as a basis for hiring and promotions in state and local government jobs, state college admis- sions, and public works and other government contracts.

Idaho Republican Sen. Larry E. Craig's June arrest in a Minnesota airport men's room, and his guilty plea last month to a misdemeanor, are further evidence that Republicans operate on a preach-but-not-practice standard. This is the party that not only has exploited the gay marriage issue with ballot measures and even a proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution but also deigns to stand atop its self-erected pulpits and lecture liberals, Democrats and the rest of the country about the need to affirm and protect America's "moral values."