“In my real life I work closely with the California roofing industry.”
—Ward Connerly

Although Connerly is a recognizable face to many citizens, journalists and activists in the states where he runs his initiatives, few know where he gets his money from or what the wider agenda of his backers is.

Connerly’s ties to the contracting industry grew out of his political connections with the California Republican establishment, in particular former Republican Governor Pete Wilson, who is, along with Thomas L. Rhodes is probably more responsible for setting Connerly on his career path than any other figure.

Wilson positioned Connerly at the center of national wedge politics by appointing him in 1993 to a twelve year term on the University of California board of regents, which Connerly acknowledges was a diversity appointment. From there he launched an aggressive and successful bid to end affirmative action in admissions, hiring and contracting at the university. Connerly was then approached to take over the failing Prop 209 campaign. Ward Connerly, Creating Equal, (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2000), pp. 105-106. Encounter Books was started with funding from the Bradley Foundation.

But some of the key commercial and political relationships that have sustained Connerly over the years were cemented in the nearly two decades before the battles around Prop 209 and at the University of California.