No on Proposition 54

Ward Connelly and his anti-affirmative action supporters put a measure, Proposition 54, on the California ballot that would have prevented the collection of racial data by the State of California.

The Strategy Group was hired by civil rights activists concerned about the initiative's effect on California minorities and the possibility Connelly would launch a similar effort in other states across the nation.

Through extensive research, we developed an unexpected and successful message to change the debate, urging voters to oppose Proposition 54 based on health care concerns — rather than debate affirmative action.

How We Did It

An initiative campaign is much different than a campaign for a political candidate. Our challenge was to convince voters to cast ballots against this single issue.

Votes from affirmative action proponents would not be enough to defeat Prop. 54. We had to appeal to a broad audience and talk about more than race.

With thorough primary research, we discovered the initiative could have extensive effects on education, criminal justice and public health should it become state law. So we surveyed voters to gather their opinion on our research. Based on that polling, we developed our message: Proposition 54 could lower the quality of health care in California.

This campaign was fought in the midst of, and overshadowed by, the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election's wall-to-wall news coverage and advertisements focused on the race between Governor Davis and Republican Candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Cutting through all of that media clutter was a challenge. In the end, we reversed an initial lead of more than 30 points and helped California's civil rights community win its first major initiative victory in more than a decade.

At The Strategy Group we believe every campaign begins with thorough research. Before any communication with voters can begin, we must know every angle of the issue and thoroughly test possible messages with the target audience. Because like the campaign to defeat Prop. 54 shows, the right message isn't always obvious — especially in an initiative campaign.