RACE, SEX PARTIALITY VOTED OUT : FOES VOW TO TEST MEASURE IN COURT.

Byline: Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writer

The ``wedge'' issue of the California campaign season, ending affirmative action under Proposition 209, was approved by voters Tuesday even as opponents threatened a legal challenge.

``I think this means the voters of California are fairly decisive in their desire to end racial preferences,'' said Ward Connerly, the African-American University of California regent who headed the campaign to make California the first state in the nation to eliminate affirmative action based on race and gender.

``Voters are saying they really want to change our excessive preoccupation with race. This is not just a question of ending preferences; it's dealing with this obsession with race. This is a step into . . . becoming a colorblind society.''

In an appeal to African-Americans, Connerly said it was time for them to recognize and end their dependence on government programs.

``The time has come to let go,'' Connerly said. ``We cannot afford to look thorugh the rear view mirror of America's mistakes. We must look through the windshield at America's future.''

Opponents immediately threatened to take the measure to court, saying the issue is too important to go unchallenged.

``This woke this whole country up,'' said Connie Rice of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. ``We are going to put together a coalition of groups to take this to court to keep this from being enforced.''

The measure was expected to become a lightning rod for voter discontent from the moment it was first proposed by two Northern California college professors, Tom Wood and Glynn Custred, who labeled it the ``California Civil Rights Initiative.''

Yet, it never engendered the kind of heated emotions stirred two years ago by Proposition 187, the voter-approved measure that sought to stop most services to illegal immigrants and has ended up in court appeals.

To its supporters, Proposition 209 is a matter of ending preferences in state hiring, education and contracts based on race and gender - a system they call antithetical to its very goals of equal rights.

To opponents, Proposition 209 is a renunciation of the best in America's tradition of leveling the playing field for women and minorities. The job was only half done, they said, and affirmative action is still needed.

There was a brief effort last year by some in the Legislature to place the measure on the March 1996 ballot, but Democrats headed it off. Instead, it went the initiative route to qualify for the ballot.

President Clinton took note of the potential impact of the state measure when he ordered a review of federal affirmative action, saying he wanted to ``mend it, not end it.''

Eventually, the president came out against Proposition 209 even as Republican challenger Bob Dole began to emphasize his support for the proposal in his California campaign.

Gov. Pete Wilson rode the issue during his brief presidential bid. Later, Wilson issued an executive order banning the use of preferences in state hiring and contracting.

A group of primarily Democratic officials and women's organizations, including the National Organization for Women and the Feminist Majority, came together to head up the opposition campaign. The group put together a televised campaign arguing the measure would end all affirmative action and outreach programs.

Connerly presided over a campaign that had a series of peaks and valleys. He at first sought to make the measure a bipartisan issue. Rebuffed by Democrats, he was forced to turn to Republicans for all his support.

``You have to go with the people who are supporting you,'' Connerly said, even as midsummer polls showed the measure with wide support among all voters.

Then, in September, Wilson and House Speaker Newt Gingrich - who had earlier advised GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole to remain aloof from the issue - made an appeal to corporate donors to back the measure.

``From my vantage point (as speaker), CCRI is vital because we have to be competitive in California to keep control of the House,'' Gingrich said in the call to 60 corporate executives as reported in the Daily News during the campaign. ``If CCRI is still ahead by a dramatic margin, the environment is perfect for our candidates.''

Then students at Cal State Northridge voted to pay $4,000 to ex-Ku Klux Klansman David Duke to debate the issue on the school campus.

Despite protests from Connerly and other CCRI supporters that it was a move designed to misrepresent the proposition, the anti-CCRI forces were able to use the Duke appearance to begin to generate opposition to the measure.