Affirmative Reaction: Justice To Review California Contracts

The University of California’s decision to end affirmative action programs was “a terrible mistake” and will trigger a Justice Department review of federal contracts with the state, White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said Sunday.

Panetta, appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” said the action by the university regents was “a major retreat in terms of a university and a state that has always been on the leading edge of moving forward” on civil rights issues.

He said the Justice Department and other agencies would review their relationships with the state to determine whether grant money and contracts could be affected by the decision.

Regents declared Thursday that race and gender no longer would be considered in school admissions, hiring and contracting. But they exempted any changes that would result “in a loss of federal or state funds for the university.”

California Gov. Pete Wilson took knocks from both Republicans and Democrats interviewed on the Sunday news program for his support of the university action.

Panetta said Wilson, a contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996, “obviously is running for president on this kind of issue. … It is divisive and I think it is really going to set that state back.”

“I don’t think there’s any question that he is stirring the pot of racial turmoil by his actions,” said Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

One the Republican side, former Education Secretary William Bennett told NBC that Wilson had signed into law 21 bills on affirmative action. Bennett questioned Wilson’s political motive for changing his stance now. Bennett said he supported the university action, “but if it looks like political opportunism, it will not serve our party.”

Wilson, appearing later on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley,” said affirmative action “is in fact racial preferences, racial discrimination. It is wrong and it is unfair.”