8/25/00 2:30 p.m.
Right-Lane Merge
Two influential players will join forces.

By NR's John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru

wo of the most influential players in the conservative battle against racial preferences will formally join forces in October, when Ward Connerly's American Civil Rights Institute and Edward Blum's Campaign for a Color-Blind America merge.

Blum's Houston-based operation will relocate to the Washington, D.C. area and become known as ACRI's legal-defense fund.

The Campaign for a Color-Blind America is probably best known for its work on voting rights — several of its cases against racial gerrymandering have won at the Supreme Court level. It has generally tried to apply existing law against racial preferences, as opposed to breaking new ground through the judicial system.

In 1998, Blum led an initiative to repeal racial preferences in Houston, modeled on Connerly's Proposition 209 campaign in California. The Houston effort failed, but only after the city council tampered with the ballot language. Blum is currently trying to force a new election through the state courts.

"We decided the Campaign never had proper funding or leadership to take the cases we wanted," says Blum. "Ward has such stature, this will be an excellent partnership."