More Asian American Involvement
By: Irene Bueno
(Lawyer Irene Bueno is AAA-Fund’s former executive director, and now one
of its board members. During President Bill Clinton’s two terms, she was
Special Presidential Assistant on Domestic Policy at the White House. She also
served as Special
Assistant in the Chief of Staff's office at the White House. Currently, she’s a principal at
Nueva Vista Group LLC.)
The highly successful results of
the 2006 election for both Asian Pacific Islander American candidates and voters underscored this:
Their roles in American politics will continue to grow. “We expect that the
2008 presidential elections will see record political involvement from Asian Pacific
Islander Americans,” said Erika L. Moritsugu,
Executive Director of the Asian American Action Fund (AAA-Fund) based in the nation’s capital.
“In future election cycles, from running for office to
working with political campaigns to simply voting, the APIA community will
again make its voice heard loud and clear,” she stressed.
The midterm elections yielded
significant gains for Asian Pacific Islander Americans (APIAs).
They increased their numbers in the US Congress, won offices in states outside
their traditional strongholds, and played a key role in electing politicians
who showed support for APIA issues.
“Because they played such a
significant role in these elections, politicians should be more responsive to
the unique concerns of the APIA community,” said Erika L. Moritsugu,
Executive Director of the Asian American Action Fund (AAA-Fund) based in the nation’s
capital. “The days of being taken for granted are over.”
The AAA-Fund is a national
Democratic political organization. Its goal is to increase the voice of Asian
Americans and Pacific Islanders in federal government and at local and state
levels, by encouraging them to volunteer on campaigns, raise money for
candidates, and run for political office.
At the federal level, Asian
Americans and Pacific Islanders will be better represented, as they increased
their membership in the 435-member House of Representatives from five to six.
The five incumbents who won were Michael Honda (D-CA), Doris Matsui (D-CA),
Bobby Scott (D-VA), David Wu (D-OR), Eni Faleomavaega (D-America Samoa) and Bobby Jindal (R-LA).
Newcomer Mazie Hirono (D-HI) captured her seat by a resounding
margin of 20 percentage points. And although she lost by a narrow margin in her
campaign for a Congressional seat in Illinois,
Tammy Duckworth became a
national figure who won the hearts of many Americans for her sacrifice, courage
and her historic campaign.
Immigration issue
Asian Pacific Islander
Americans played a key role in the victories of candidates who had expressed
support for their concerns. In the hotly contested Senate race in Virginia
between Jim Webb, a Democrat, and George Allen, a Republican, exit polling
conducted by CNN found Asians favored Webb 68 percent to 32 percent. Given the
close outcome of the race--Webb won by a razor thin margin out of the 2.37
million cast--the three percent of the vote that came from the APIA community
likely tipped the scale.
Webb’s victory highlights one
of the major outcomes of the 2006 elections for Asian Pacific Islander
Americans--the increased likelihood of a policy on immigration more palatable
to the APIA community. While Asian Pacific Islander Americans are by no means a
monolithic supporter of immigration, an exit poll conducted by the Asian
Pacific American Legal Center of South California and the Asian Law Caucus in
the L.A. and San Francisco Counties and the City of Oakland found that 68% of
Asian American voters expressed support for a legalization program for
undocumented immigrants--a not-so-surprising result, given that many Asian
Americans themselves are immigrants.
Swing votes
The Asian Americans and Pacific
Islander voters played a key role in many more congressional elections. Agence France-Presse, an
established news agency, reported their votes were crucial in about 100 of the
435 House races in the US Congress, quoting William Marumoto,
president of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies
(APAICS).
Asian Pacific Islander American
candidates also extended their geographic influence beyond California and
Hawaii. They captured or retained state lawmaker seats in Connecticut,
Maryland, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and Texas, achieving several firsts
along the way.
In Connecticut, William Tong, a
Democrat, became the first Asian Pacific Islander American to be elected a
state representative. Another milestone occurred in Maryland. For the first
time in any state, two South Asians were elected to the state legislature: State House Majority Leader Kumar Barve and Saqib Ali, both Democrats.
Younger Asian Americans also got into the act. Democrat Raj Goyle, 31, was elected to the Kansas House of
Representatives, while 26-year old Jay Goyal, also a
Democrat, won a seat in Ohio’s state senate.
In addition, Asian Pacific
Islander Americans managed to improve on their representation in states where
they are traditionally strong. In California, John Chiang, a Democrat, became
the first Asian Pacific Islander American State Controller and the fourth Asian
Pacific Islander American to serve in a statewide office. Democrat Leland Yee
became the first Asian Pacific Islander American to serve in the California
State Senate. The state of Washington also added two more Asian Pacific
Islander Americans to its senate, bringing the total to five.
AAA-Fund was involved in
helping to elect many of the successful APIA candidates, including, among
others, Hirono, Tong, Goyal,
and Chiang. AAA-Fund provided both significant financial support and additional
resources to assist with community outreach, voter mobilization, and voter
turn-out. Remarked AAA-Fund Executive Director Moritsugu:
“We’re proud to have worked with these outstanding candidates and expect that
the impact of organizations like the AAA-Fund will continue to grow in future
election cycles.”
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