Hispanic leaders Monday vowed to fight Proposition 54, which would ban the state from collecting racial or ethnic data.

"This is more important in a way than the governor's race," declared Ben Benavides, president emeritus of the Mexican American Political Association.

The "racial privacy" initiative shares the ballot in October with the recall question and a list of 135 candidates to replace Gov.Davis.

Benavides joined officials from the University of California, Latino Issues Forum and the Latino Center for Medical Education and Research in a Fresno news conference as Hispanic groups around the state made similar opposition announcements.

UC regent Ward Connerly, who is sponsoring Prop. 54, says he is aiming for a color-blind society. The initiative would prohibit the state from using any racial data in public education, public employment or contracting, but has specific exemptions for law enforcement, prisons, housing and health.

Connerly successfully pushed Proposition 209 in 1996 to ban affirmative action programs in the state's public institutions.

Encarncion Ruiz, admissions director for UC Merced, said while Connerly's earlier effort keeps the university from using race to choose which students to admit, Prop. 54 also would prevent the university from learning where it has failed to reach students. Racial and ethnic data help the university create programs to encourage certain minorities to apply and be more successful in college.

Benavides argued that collection of ethnic and racial information on housing and employment is especially crucial in the central San Joaquin Valley: "This will kill many opportunities for Latinos."

Dr. Alvaro Garza had a two-word argument for the importance of tracking ethnicity. "Remember SARS?" asked the research director with UC San Francisco's medical education program in Fresno.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome was brought under control by tracking race, ethnicity and country of origin of those sick with the virus, he contended.

"We need to know the what, where, when and who of health so we can direct policy decisions" -- and public tax dollars, Garza said. "One-size-fits-all in health prevention and treatment doesn't do it."

Proponents of the initiative say loopholes are included for medical research and that health officials' fears are unwarranted.