Kemp’s CCRI Stand Could Be the Key to California

In a Dole campaign filled with parenthetical statements, ellipses and unfinished sentences, Jack Kemp is a human exclamation point.

He is a walking, talking, hyperventilating reinforcement for Bob Dole’s campaign policy centerpiece of an across-the-board tax cut. And his selection not only has fired up party loyalists, but also creates possibilities for reaching out to voters who do not traditionally support Republicans candidates.

So why, in the first genuinely exciting moment of the campaign, should California Republicans feel so conflicted?

Kemp’s roots in the state immediately led Washington pundits to the conventional wisdom that his selection should be interpreted as a renewed Dole commitment to California. But the quarterback-turned-politician went east a long time ago, and there aren’t a lot of voters who still remember him lining up behind center for the San Diego Chargers.

There are, however, a lot of voters who remember his decision to inject himself into the debate over illegal immigration here, coming out against Proposition 187 shortly before its passage two years ago. And the Clinton campaign, needing to neutralize the issue here in the fall, will happily remind those who don’t.

The other line of demarcation that Republicans had hoped to draw against Clinton here was on the question of reverse discrimination. Kemp’s chilly response to GOP efforts in Congress to overhaul racial and ethnic preference programs makes it unlikely that he will join Dole in supporting Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative.

As Clinton moves to the center on issue after issue, drawing a distinction between the two candidates is becoming more and more difficult. Illegal immigration and racial preferences had been two of the most potent weapons left in Dole’s California arsenal. But with a running mate who mirrors Clinton’s position on both issues, it will be difficult for Dole to use either to his advantage.

As that rare Republican with legitimate ties to the African American community, Kemp’s first instincts almost certainly will be to speak out against CCRI. But as an outspoken advocate for individual empowerment and opportunity, he should be reluctant to embrace the race-based hiring and admission policies that the initiative would eliminate. If Kemp is willing to look past the name-calling and the defensiveness that have characterized most of the opposition to CCRI, he will find a proposal that seeks to empower individuals for success regardless of their race or ethnicity, precisely the goal for which he has worked for so many years.

Although it still enjoys large majorities of public support in statewide polling, CCRI is extremely vulnerable, primarily because its proponents have been unable to articulate a positive alternative to the present system. They need a more uplifting voice to enter this debate on their side, a voice that can augment their overly stern message with talk about outreach programs and mentoring for at-risk youth and about creating hope and opportunity for those who have none.

That is Kemp’s voice. It is his message. If he chooses to join the movement for a truly colorblind society, he can do untold amounts of good both for the initiative and for his running mate with state voters. But if he listens to the nay-sayers who fight to keep society divided along racial lines and opposes CCRI, he will effectively close the door on the Dole campaign in California.

California Republicans still carry scars from the recent past, when the decision by the Bush campaign not to contest the state in 1992 led to electoral hemorrhaging up and down the ballot. Democrats won both of the state’s U.S. Senate seats and made gains in the congressional and legislative delegations. It was a long, ugly night, and the state GOP has been working for four years to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

And so even as California Republicans cheer the energy, the enthusiasm and the tax-cut fervor that Kemp brings to the battle, they do so with the creeping realization that his selection means that this is another war that they may end up sitting out.

But like he has done so many times in the past, Kemp can run against the grain. He can lead the movement toward racial equality in a way that no other Republican is able. And he can return his party to the White House in the process. Not an easy task, but eminently achievable for an old quarterback willing to take a gamble when his team needs a big play to get back in the game.