JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.

Tim Asher sat calmly and appeared unfazed moments before he was to address a roomful of Hispanic leaders, some of whom were likely to be hostile to his message that Missouri should end affirmative action programs based on race and gender.

In recent months, Asher, 45, has become accustomed to speaking before skeptical crowds like this one at Hispanic Day at the Capitol.

Asher, with his boy-next-door looks, has become the face of the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative.

The initiative calls for an end to racial and gender preferences in public higher education and state and local government.

If Asher and a cadre of hundreds of signature-gatherers collect enough names on their petitions by Friday, the issue will be brought before voters on the November ballot.

In Asher’s view, it’s a grass-roots movement that many Missourians support. And he says it all traces back to the day when, as a college admissions director, he took a stand against race-based scholarships.

Asher believes his position is common sense that the state should treat everyone the same. So when he stands before the crowd in Jefferson City, he assumes he can win it over.

On this day, he was greeted with polite applause. By the time he was done, he faced a series of pointed questions and angry retorts about discrimination and the need for affirmative action programs.

“Sir,” one Hispanic woman said to Asher, “try to walk in our shoes.”

In the eyes of his critics, Asher is merely the front for a well-funded campaign that has methodically sought to topple affirmative action initiatives in state after state.

That effort, led by California businessman Ward Connerly, helped end gender and racial preferences through successful ballot efforts in California, Washington and Michigan.

Buoyed by those victories and armed with millions of dollars, Connerly has connected with local residents such as Asher to take his crusade into Missouri as well as Colorado, Arizona and Nebraska. His campaign in Oklahoma recently failed.