With one brief criticism of affirmative action, John McCain has brought new attention to ballot issues aimed at dismantling preferential treatment programs for women and minorities.

The question is whether McCain's support for one of those initiatives, in Arizona, will make any difference.

Ward Connerly, the former University of California regent who is bankrolling the Arizona initiative and similar measures in Nebraska and Colorado, said he has not seen any increase in donations or GOP supporters flocking to his cause since McCain spoke up last month.

McCain's comments also have drawn critics who pointed to comments he made a decade ago calling similar measures divisive.

The ballot initiatives in Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska call for amending the state constitutions to ban any hiring practices, university scholarships and other public programs that favor one group over others. Arizona and Nebraska officials are still verifying petition signatures, while Colorado has the initiative slated for the November ballot.

Connerly's group, the American Civil Rights Initiative, has been successful with similar initiatives in California, Washington and Michigan.

Connerly said his ballot initiatives would attack such programs as the Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise Program in Tucson. It allows minority and women-owned businesses to bid more for city contracts than other groups and requires prime contractors to make a serious effort to hire them for work.

Tucson officials said they crafted the program in response to a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down quotas for minority-owned construction companies.

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McCain weighed in on Connerly's efforts in late July, saying on ABC's "This Week" that he endorsed the Arizona initiative -- although he had not read the details of the proposal.

In a 1998 conversation about similar measures, he told a Hispanic business group: "Rather than engage in divisive ballot initiatives, we must have a dialogue and cooperation and mutual efforts together to provide for every child in America to fulfill their expectations."

In Colorado, initiative opponents filed enough signatures Monday for a competing ballot question that would ban quotas and point systems while preserving support programs for female college students, male nurses and other underrepresented groups. Colorado elections officials are still verifying signatures for that competing initiative.

And in Nebraska, lawyer and GOP presidential delegate David Kramer said he has started challenging the ballot initiative with county elections officials. His group, Nebraskans United, also has filed a lawsuit challenging the language in the initiative.

"It's misleading," Kramer said. "It talked about what this wouldn't do, instead of talking about the programs it would eliminate."