Dinner with the President

A fundraiser for a San Francisco PAC goes out of control

by Alethea Yip

Posters plastered in Chinatown storefronts and telephone poles this week announcing President Bill Clinton as the keynote speaker at a star-studded fundraiser next week may be promising more than the sponsor can deliver.

Several Democratic Party sources said that they doubt Clinton will show up let alone address the celebrants at the awards organized by the Lotus Fund, a San Francisco-based Asian Pacific American political action group. Instead, sources, who requested that the names not be used, said that Clinton will attend a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in the same San Francisco Hilton Towers on the same night of the Lotus Fund's gala.

Also, discrepancies about where the proceeds of the event will go has left some Democratic Party players in the dark.

However, Lotus Fund officials insist that the president is coming and said that they got confirmation from the Democratic National Committee. But as of Wednesday, AsianWeek could not confirm this claim.

"The fact that President Clinton is coming to our event is a reflection of the fact that he is paying attention to the Asian American community," said Marsha Cheung Golangco, president of the fund.

The Lotus Fund, a nonpartisan California political action committee, was founded about four years ago to, "support political parties and candidates who best reflect our concerns for the Asian American community," according to the fund's literature regarding its focus.

PACs such as the Lotus Fund play an important role for the APA community, especially in the country's current political climate that scapegoats immigrants and APAs, said Golangco. With its organizing and fundraising efforts, the days of taking the APA community and its money for granted are over, she continued.

"Politicians come to our community to get money," she said. "Then we are forgotten. We are here to let people know that we are a group of people who demand to be acknowledged."

When the July 23 event was first announced last week, press releases and news reports said that the gala sponsored by the Lotus Fund honoring about 30 APA community leaders, educators, and artists was to raise money for the Democratic National Committee in order to aid in Clinton's re-election campaign.

But now, the fund's leaders have said that was never the intention.

"The money will go to community organizations and nonprofits," said Golangco. However, she declined to name any of the recipient agencies, explaining that it has not yet been completely decided which charities and service providers will get a chunk of the estimated $500,000 that the event will bring in.

And she said that donors do not have a problem not knowing where their money is going because they are really contributing to the Lotus Fund.

Golangco added that some of the money might go toward a voter registration drive and said that as of Tuesday about 600 tickets were sold at mostly $175 a piece. Prices range from $175 to $500. But sponsors who pay $1,000 or more will get a photo opportunity with the president, and donors who give $10,000 will be invited to a more intimate gathering with Clinton preceding the event, said Golangco.

Claudine Cheng, first vice chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, said that she supports the concept of the Lotus Fund- a group that helps create a political voice for APAs-but said she is confused about the purpose for the gala.

"My understanding was that the money from the dinner was going to the DNC to support the incumbent ... That was the conversation that I was involved in with them a couple of weeks ago," said a bewildered Cheng Tuesday. Cheng, a San Francisco attorney is also chair of San Francisco Victory Ô96 , a campaign to elect San Francisco Democratic party nominees.

"It is my understanding that the event was to raise money for the Lotus Fund," said Alicia Wang, DNC delegate and Lotus Fund boardmember. "The Lotus Fund is a PAC. PACs raise money and then distributes the money as the members deem appropriate.

"Since the PAC endorsed Clinton, I would think that some of the money would go to Clinton," she explained. "But that would depend on how the members vote. That's how PACs usually work, but nothing is set in stone."

Sources close to the Democratic Party and the Lotus Fund said that controversy as to where the money goes boils down to a struggle to gain recognition for the fundraising effort. An indication of the sensitivity of the situation among APA community members and political players is the several people who would only discuss the subject on the condition of anonymity.

"The DNC wanted people to cut checks directly to the DNC and the Lotus Fund wanted people to cut checks directly to the Lotus Fund," said a source who did not want to be named. "Basically, it's all about who gets the credit for the money this event brings in."

The source added that if the Lotus Fund gets the credit for the money, that translate into clout for the APA community if Clinton is re-elected. And if the DNC claims the credit, it gets a pat on the back.

Representatives of the DNC had not returned calls by press time.

Things started to sour for the fund when the San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that there is a pending felony assault weapons charge involving one of the chief organizers of the event, Norman Young.

Young resigned from the Lotus Fund last week as a result of publicity about the three and a half year old charges against him. He maintains his innocence and said that he was just another Asian gun collector who was targeted for an unknown reason by then district attorney Arlo Smith.

"They railroaded me with some bogus allegations," said the car repair business owner and political activist. "They tried to portray me as the David Koresh of San Francisco."

And he said his decision to leave the fund was clear.

"I was creating too much publicity for the fund," Young said. "I just wanted the focus to be on the event, not me. I want it to be successful."

But Young said that when he helped organize the event, the original intention was to help the president get re-elected by donating the bulk of the proceeds to the DNC. Young was also involved in a luncheon last fall that raised about $180,000 for the president's re-election bid. The APA community is expected to be a big political player this election year, raising an estimated $6 to 8 million for the presidential candidates, said David Lee, executive director of the Chinese American Voter Education Committee.

"I just found out today that it changed," Young said in an interview Tuesday. "But I'm not involved anymore."

According to Mike Fang, Lotus Fund past president and one of the early organizers of the gala, the original intention of the event was to raise money for the DNC to help with a Clinton/Gore victory this fall.

"The whole idea of event was to raise money for the Democratic party and nothing else," said Fang, a San Francisco business owner. "I don't know what happened to it.

"The purpose was to raise money for Clinton," he continued. "Otherwise, what the hell is he coming for?"

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