SACRAMENTO -- Over Republican objections, the state Senate swiftly confirmed United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta as a member of the University of California board of regents Thursday.

Gov. Gray Davis' nomination of Huerta, made suddenly on Tuesday, was endorsed on a 25-5 vote.

Most Republicans abstained after leaders objected to Davis making a large number of appointments with a recall election against him looming early next month.

Bakersfield Republican Sen. Roy Ashburn was one of five who voted no.

At a brief Senate Rules Committee hearing on the nomination earlier, Huerta, who lives in Bakersfield, said she hopes to widen the university's acceptance of ethnic and other minorities.

"I hope to increase diversity at the university not only at the student level, but also at the faculty and administration level," Huerta said.

The nomination was supported by more than a dozen representatives of labor and civil rights organizations.

One of them called attention to the fact that Huerta will join a board of regents that also includes Ward Connerly, the outspoken opponent of affirmative action programs.

He also is the sponsor of Proposition 54, which would outlaw government collection of ethnic data on citizens, on the Oct. 7 recall ballot.

"Mr. Connerly, guess who's coming to the next regents' meeting," said Mark Schacht, deputy director of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.

At the same time, the Senate approved the renomination of radio executive Norman Pattiz to the board.

Pattiz was first appointed by Davis in 2001 to an unexpired term that will end next March.

But he recently reappointed Pattiz to a full 12-year term.

He appointed Huerta to serve the remaining months on Pattiz's term.

But her nomination came abruptly on Tuesday after a Democratic member of the Rules Committee, Gloria Romero of Los Angeles, threatened to block Pattiz's appointment if the governor didn't name someone besides a wealthy white campaign contributor.

She suggested Huerta as a step to increase the diversity of the board, and the governor quickly complied.

Republicans were sharply critical of the moves, saying the governor selected in the recall election should be given the chance to make such appointments.

"The governor's actions are wrong," Ashburn said. "He's on the clock. His days are numbered."

Sen. Ross Johnson, R-Irvine, said it was an underhanded move for Pattiz to resign his existing seat and be appointed to a 12-year term.

"One has to ask," Johnson said, "why the governor did not appoint Ms. Huerta to the 12-year term."