Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 12

ALL EDITIONS Saturday, November 10, 1990 A12 The Arizona Republic NFL: Cities' King Day falls short Flawed ballot doomed King vote, whiz says if lltfrrt iN' vV'V Erik S. LesserThe Associated Press NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue (right) chats with University of Tennessee football Coach Johnny Majors in Knoxville. Tagliabue insisted Friday that his stance on the 1 993 Super Bowl hasn't changed. He wants the game moved. should be signed into law because probability tells him that at least that number favored only Proposition 301.

"Using standards of logic that any philosophy major or engineer would use, it's clear that a majority want a King Day," he said. Paul Bender, dean of the Arizona State University College of Law, said Friday that he was not surprised by the King Day vote. "You don't have to be a computer whiz to figure it out," said Bender, who wrote an article for The Arizona Republic's Perspective section of Sept. 2 warning about the possibility of King Day losing despite a majority of voters' supporting it. "Suppose that 80 percent of Arizona voters were to favor a King Day, with 20 percent opposed," Bender wrote.

"If the paid King Day opponents voted against both propositions, while those favoring a paid King Day split the vote evenly between the two propositions both would fail with 40 percent 'yeses' and 60 percent 'no's' even though four out of five Arizonan voters wanted a paid King Day." "All's fair in love and war and politics," said King Day opponent Bob Rose, who said his No-No Committee puzzled over why the pro-King Day groups' failed to exploit the issue raised by Bender. UNITY head Arnie Zaler, however, said politics made it impossible to urge people to vote "yes-yes." "We couldn't do that because of the Columbus Day deal," he said, alluding to an alliance formed between his group and Italian- American proponents of Columbus Day. "We formed an alliance and 'Yes on 302' had to be our position." To prove Mensch's and Bender's point, Tuesday's votes would have to be recounted, something that would probably take a lawsuit, state election officer Margaret Stears said. Bender, nevertheless, said he thinks Arizona should know that "a clear majority" want a paid King Day. "I hear people saying it clearly lost," he said.

"We need to correct the image the anti-King people are spreading around. The people voted for a holiday." Mesa resident sues NFL, CBS on bowl-loss threat 80 support would have lost because of split By Cathryn Creno The Arizona Republic A Mesa computer whiz says bad-logic, not a leak from the National Football League, defeated Arizona's chance to create a paid state holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Bill Mcnsch, a Mesa resident who designed the microprocessors that are used in Apple II and Macintosh computers, says an illogically designed ballot unfairly split the vote Tuesday of those favoring a paid King Day. Mensch, owner of the Western Design Center computer firm and a King Day said he went to the polls prepared to vote only for Proposition 302, which called for a paid King Day and retention of a state holiday honoring Christopher Columbus.

But when he saw the ballot, he said, he realized that King Day probably would lose unless he also voted for Proposition 301, which called for King Day without Columbus Day. "We had two bits of information and four combinations: yes-yes, yes-no, no-yes, and no-no," said Mensch, who added that having the choices unfairly divided the vote of those who favor King Day. In effect, King Day opponents could cast two "no" votes, while most supporters split their "yes" votes between the two propositions. "It's a clear logic," Mensch said. Many King Day supporters apparently forgot their lessons from Logic 101, however.

Mensch said that more than half of his friends and acquaintances said they had voted against either 301 or 302. Additionally, many voters apparently were angered by a report by CBS Sports on Sunday that the NFL already had prepared a statement urging team owners to withdraw the Super Bowl from Arizona should King Day be defeated. Mensch said that because 302 lost by about 17,000 votes, or less than 1 percentage point, he believes some form of King Day UmrnGooe. '90s Evaporative Cooling Technology The Very Best! State holiday a must, chief I of league says i The Associated Press I KNOXVILLE, Tenn. Arizona voters' defeat of a bill to establish a paid Martin Luther King state holi- day overrides the fact that Phoenix and Tempe, site of the 1993 Super Howl, have such a holiday, National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Friday.

The commissioner, in Knoxville for 1 today's Notre Dame-Tennessee game as a guest of University of Tennessee 2 President Lamar Alexander, said it 'isn't enough that two Arizona cities have days honoring King. "The mayor of Phoenix raised that "with our office," Tagliabue said. "But I think, as a practical matter, it's an Arizona game, and we have to deal with the issue on a statewide and national level, and not on a municipal level." In Tuesday's general election, ers rejected two propositions that would have created a paid King Day. On Wednesday, Tagliabue said he would 'recommend to NFL team "owners that they vote to rescind the contract for the game, a move that would cost the Valley an estimated $200 million in revenues. Arizona political and business lcad-" ers immediately began meeting to find i a way to.

retain the game. Phoenix 'I Mayor Paul Johnson stressed that his city and Tempe observe King Day, r. suggesting that the game be dedicated to the slain civil-rights leader and that Phoenix organize events to raise funds for activities dedicated to King's ideals. Before Tagliabue spoke Friday, local officials had taken some hope from a statement he made Thursday Wn Richmond, hinting that he may have eased his stance. "I've told the people in Phoenix that we're trying to keep the door open and trying to act in a fair-minded and responsible way," Tagliabue said Thursday.

"We're not trying to do anything punitive. And there are people in the community who hope that something could be done and would be responsible for 'that." Johnson said earlier Friday, "I am -encouraged that Mr. Tagliabue has expressed a willingness to give this a little more thought, realizing perhaps that the issue is a bit more compli-' cated than he originally thought." The league has no plans to pull its .1992 owners meeting from the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. The fact that Phoenix has a King holiday played a key role in that decision, an NFL official said Thursday. But, in his Knoxville insisted his stance hasn't changed he wants the game moved.

"We just concluded it would not be in the best interests of the NFL to play that Super Bowl in Arizona, and we're looking at alternatives now," he said. A decision by the 28 team owners on moving the game is expected during the league's annual meeting in March in Hawaii. It is considered highly unlikely that they would reject Tagliabue's recommendation. "I've seen enough mail from Arizona and I know enough about the controversy to know that, from the perspective of our teams and our league and our players, there is a negative and divisive message in that vote," Tagliabue said Friday. I "I felt that under those circum-I stances, it was inappropriate for us to play our Super Bowl game there." Friday's comment brought words of outrage from Johnson, who said it lis unfortunate that Tagliabue "has I decided to abrogate his responsibility in the defeat of the Martin Luther King holiday." "I'm not so concerned about losing the Super Bowl because of the Martin Luther King vote," Johnson said.

I'm angry as the dickens about and Tagliabue prepared' a statement last week indicating that they would take the game somewhere else if the King holiday was not approved in Tuesday's election. Those defendants then allowed CBS and Gumbel to broadcast the league's plan to go elsewhere if the holiday was rejected, the suit says. Pierce said he filed the suit because "the NFL and CBS, in doing what they did, and Gumbel in doing what he did, have pressured the voters." Voters on Tuesday rejected two measures intended to honor King. One would have substituted a paid King holiday for Columbus Day; the other would have retained a paid Columbus holiday and added a paid King holiday. Pierce said he had intended to vote for the holiday but voted against it after hearing about the broadcast.

"I was prepared to vote for it, and when they (CBS) made that announcement, I said, He believes many Arizonans reacted in the same way. "Most Arizonans are pretty independent," he said. "You pressure them that way, they get their backs up." By John Winters The Arizona Republic A Mesa engineer sued the National Football League and CBS Television on Friday, accusing them of breaking state law by threatening to pull the 1993 Super Bowl from Arizona unless voters approved a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Fred E.

Pierce, 55, of the 2600 block of South El Marino, Mesa, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. Also named as defendants are NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, the NFL Today Show and its host, Greg Gumbel. Pierce accuses the defendants of violating state laws prohibiting "changing the vote of an elector by corrupt means or inducement" and "coercion or intimidation of electors." He asked the court to issue an order preventing the league from moving the 1993 bowl game from Arizona unless it goes to a state with "a voter-approved, paid Martin Luther King holiday already voted in and established." But, there are no such states, Pierce said Friday. In the suit, Pierce says the NFL modern bps ARIZONA'S LEADING CONTEMPORARY FURNITURE SHOWROOM SINCE 1953 3013 East McDowell Road 275-2711 FLORSHEIM SHOE SHOPS ASK ABOUT OUR 30 DAY COMFORT GUARANTEE imsUsixiEst FURNITURE FACTORY DIRECT SHOWROOM OF WINNERS ONLY Oak Rolltops, Flattops, Files More INSIDE PARDISE VALLEY MALL 896-7800 losing the King Day because of an NFL leak.

"If he (Tagliabue) really cared about Martin Luther King, it would be a fair compromise to dedicate the game to King. And if it's really that important to him, he would dedicate some of the (game's) revenues himself." The mayor was referring to a report by CBS Sports on Sunday that the NFL already had prepared a statement urging the owners to withdraw the game from Arizona should the voters reject the King holiday. Many observers have blamed that report, believed to have stemmed from a source in the NFL, for derailing Proposition 302, which had been leading in pre-election polls. Bill Shover, president of the Phoenix '93 Super Bowl Committee that won the contract to the game to the" Valley, said Friday afternoon that it was possible Tagliabue's comments were being misconstrued. "I think he's talking about Arizona as it is today," said Shover, public-relations director for Phoenix Newspapers which publishes The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Gazette.

"If he is indeed calling it off, I'd be surprised and disappointed. "We will continue our efforts to have him understand the conditions that brought on this unfavorable vote and that they were conditions over which we had no control." Tagliabue said he thinks it would be somewhat hypocritical of the league, in which about 60 percent of the players are black, to play the game in Arizona under existing conditions "Many of our players regard Martin Luther King as a role model," he said. Johnson said, "Again, the Super Bowl itself is a minor issue except for the fact that they (NFL officials) have highlighted it nationally. "If you set the Super Bowl aside, this is a colossal problem. It is a problem from a racial-tension stand point and from an economic one.

It's a tremendous stain on the image of Phoenix as well. "That, in my opinion, is even more the reason they (NFL officials) should step up and shoulder at least a portion of the blame for the failure of Martin Luther King Day." Contributing to this article was Julia Lobaco of The Arizona Republic. 1 H- In this! Kipiro November 17. 1990 McDowell. Suite UK and Kve.

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