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In this May 23, file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney addresses the Latino Coalition’s 2012 Small Business Summit in Washington.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney scuttled the Massachusetts government’s long-standing affirmative action policies with a few strokes of his pen on a sleepy holiday six months after he became governor.
No news conference or news release trumpeted Romney’s executive order on Bunker Hill Day, June 17, 2003, in the deserted Statehouse. But when civil rights leaders, black lawmakers and other minority groups learned of Romney’s move two months later, it sparked a public furor.
Romney drew criticism for cutting the enforcement teeth out of the law and rolling back more than two decades of affirmative action advances.
Civil rights leaders said his order stripped minorities, women, disabled people and veterans of equal access protections for state government jobs and replaced them with broad guidelines. They complained Romney hadn’t consulted them before making the changes, snubbing the very kind of inclusion he professed to support.
*snip
His handling of affirmative action may offer insights into how he would deal with civil rights issues if he were to defeat Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, in the fall election. The Republican challenger hasn’t talked much about affirmative action during the campaign.
Outcry swells over Romney’s Mass. affirmative action moveWASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney scuttled the Massachusetts government’s long-standing affirmative action policies with a few strokes of his pen on a sleepy holiday six months after he became governor.
No news conference or news release trumpeted Romney’s executive order on Bunker Hill Day, June 17, 2003, in the deserted Statehouse. But when civil rights leaders, black lawmakers and other minority groups learned of Romney’s move two months later, it sparked a public furor.
Romney drew criticism for cutting the enforcement teeth out of the law and rolling back more than two decades of affirmative action advances.
Civil rights leaders said his order stripped minorities, women, disabled people and veterans of equal access protections for state government jobs and replaced them with broad guidelines. They complained Romney hadn’t consulted them before making the changes, snubbing the very kind of inclusion he professed to support.
*snip
His handling of affirmative action may offer insights into how he would deal with civil rights issues if he were to defeat Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, in the fall election. The Republican challenger hasn’t talked much about affirmative action during the campaign.
