Candidate vies to become first API New York City Council member
By Janet Dang
In the Flushing area of New York City, Asian Americans make up nearly half of the population. But it’s no surprise to many residents there that no Asian Americans represent that electoral district—or any of the other 50 citywide districts in New York City.
That may soon change, however. At 33, Democrat John Liu is campaigning for city council. Winning a seat in District 20 would make him the city’s first Chinese American—and Asian American—city council member. It is Liu’s second bid for the seat. In 1997, he lost to a 12-year incumbent, coming in second place and defeating one other Asian American candidate.
“It was surely the volunteers, the organizations, and that we just knew how to maneuver within the system,” he recalled.
With the incumbent terming out next year, Liu, who’s backed by a group of young professionals and armed with a list of endorsements, has a good shot come election time in 2001.
In New York City, where ethnic politics is “no less ethnic than anywhere else,” Liu said he is confident he will receive the vast majority of the Asian American vote.
Though the Asian American population in Flushing is sizable (about 40 percent), its Asian American voting population is estimated to be only 10 percent.
Comprised of about 50 percent Chinese Americans, 35 percent Korean Americans, and the rest Filipino and Southeast Asian—the Asian American population is a relatively recent group, Liu said, with many just striving for economic security. “Voting and the democratic process comes later on,” he said. “When we’re secure, that’s when we ask what’s next.”
Liu, a self-described “Flushing boy” immigrated to Queens from Taiwan when he was 5 years old. He joined his father, who was already in the United States earning an MBA. The young Liu grew up in New York like the majority of the immigrant population, going through the public schools, and later attending State University of New York, Binghamton.
Today, he with his wife, who is pregnant with their first child, live in Queens only a mile away from his first home in the United States.
For Liu, attaining a seat on the city council would be just another step along his path of public service. In junior high and high school, he devoted his time to volunteer work and community organizing, and while in college he was active in student government.
Today Liu works as a consultant in Manhattan for PriceWaterhouse Coopers LLP. He also volunteers by doing community organizing and neighborhood outreach as the president of the North Flushing Civic Association, a neighborhood group which tackles residents’ concerns, from public safety and municipal services to neighborhood beautification.
Though Liu’s experience mirrors that of many others in the API community, he doesn’t want them to support him in his council seat bid based on his ethnicity. But he added: “I do think that we need Asian American representation in the form of an Asian American member.”
The fact that there hasn’t been Asian American representation in a legislative office in New York City has made the community apathetic toward voting, Liu said. Only when an API wins an election will Asian Americans “say, ‘Yes, we can make a difference,’” But until then, he added, it’s hard to get people to vote.
“We recognize that the Asian American population isn’t large enough to make or break a candidate,” Liu said.
With that understanding comes the next challenge: building coalitions and bridges with the rest of the neighborhood, and winning over the district’s largest voting bloc—the ethnic whites, including Jews and Irish and Italian Americans.
It is a strategy that Liu has long followed. A 1997 campaign flyer, in fact, shows Asian American, Latino, black and white voters lending him their support. One elderly white woman was quoted as saying, “We trust him.” The flyer reflects the mantra of his campaign then and now, that “people have a lot in common,” Liu said. “Too often, the past representatives in this area have pointed out the differences…I honestly believe we have a lot more in common than we have differences.”