MARTINEZ - With just six weeks to go until voters head to the polls, UC Regent Ward Connerly is locked in a pitched battle of words with those who oppose Proposition 54, his initiative to ban the collection of racial data.

The fight moved Tuesday to Contra Costa County as he faced off against Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier of Concord on a county cable station.

The proposition will have a far-reaching, negative impact on health programs for at-risk children in the county as well as medical research in general, DeSaulnier argued.

Connerly, who led the successful 1996 campaign to end race-based affirmative action by state agencies, says his latest initiative is the next step in achieving a colorblind society.

The taped discussion, moderated by Contra Costa Times political editor Dan Borenstein, will air Sept. 18 on PBS station Channel 9.

The initiative, which will appear on the Oct. 7 recall ballot, proposes a state constitutional amendment to prohibit most public agencies from collecting information about individuals' race, ethnicity or national origin.

Connerly traced what he calls "racial categorizations" back to the days of slavery. "These people who believe in these classifications ... they think they're doing the right thing, but they're doing the wrong thing," he said.

"We have so many people who are marrying across lines of race and having children and not knowing what box to check. If you sat down with me as a regent and met with families in which the father is Chinese and the mother is black and they have to decide if their child is going to be this or that ... you would understand how dehumanizing it is to ask people to check a box on what their race is."

DeSaulnier lauded the goal of a colorblind society, but he argued that Prop. 54 is not the way to achieve it.

He said the proposition could make it nearly impossible for the county to target health programs for the most at-risk groups.

With information from local health departments, for example, the county lowered the high pregnancy rates among black teenagers in Pittsburg. But health officials realized Latino teens in the Monument corridor in Concord struggled with the same problem, DeSaulnier said.

Knowing where to shift scarce resources is important, he said after the taping. "If we didn't have that information, we'd be spending it across the county blindly."

DeSaulnier also criticized the proposition on a point that has become the opposition's rallying cry: They say it would impede medical research. The initiative language includes an exemption for medical research, but opponents argue it would still be impossible for California health officials to continue to research the difference in breast cancer rates among white and black women.

Connerly contends the medical research exemption would allow all forms of medical research to continue. "I'm ... disappointed that those who have fought so hard for the colorblind principle -- the NAACP and others -- are now on the wrong side of history, defending a system of classifying human beings."

DeSaulnier cautioned voters against changing the current system.

"Four centuries before Christ was born, Hippocrates, the ... physician, said 'Do no harm,'" he said. "I would ask the population of Contra Costa County and the voters of California to do no harm and vote 'no' on 54."