How APIA Candidates and Voters Made an Impact on the Elections
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 midterm elections yielded significant
positive 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 community 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 highly successful results of the 2006
election for both APIA candidates and voters also underscore that 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,” added Moritsugu. “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.”
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.
Swing votes
The Asian Americans and Pacific Islander
voters also 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.”
Webb’s victory
Asian Pacific Islander Americans played a
key role in the victories of candidates who had expressed support for their
community. 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 of 7,200 votes out of the 2.37 million cast--the three percent of
the vote that came from the APIA community likely tipped the scale.
Allen had shown new levels of insensitivity
to Asian Pacific Islander Americans during his campaign with his now infamous
“macaca” comment directed at a Webb campaign volunteer of South Asian descent,
saying to him before a crowd of white supporters, “Welcome to America, and the
real world of Virginia.”
Webb received the support of many Asian
Pacific Islander Americans, including the APIA group Real Virginians for Webb.
In Maryland, Democrat Ben Cardin, who had received the endorsement of the
AAA-Fund for his contributions to the APIA community, defeated Republican
Michael Steele by 10 percentage points. Exit polling conducted by the Asian
American Legal Defense and Education Fund found that 73% of Asian Americans
chose Cardin, while just 24% chose Steele.
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. All across the country voters rejected candidates who used
anti-immigration rhetoric, such as the language employed by Allen.
Hispanic-Americans in particular turned away from the Republican party, and
Asian Pacific Islander Americans likely helped turn the tide against
anti-immigration candidates, having played a key role in a number of races.
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 Los Angeles 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.
|
back to news
© 2006 Your Corporation. All rights reserved