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Who Are the Community Stakeholders?

Executive David Lee and Chairman Douglas Chan have reinvigorated the non-partisan Chinese American Voters Education Committee (CAVEC). On Feb. 8 Lee reported that his group had registered or re-registered over 15,000 Asian American voters this past year. Their reward was an event led by Warren Hellman, which raised $100,000.

Despite all that work, Hellman had to remind the 500 people attending that the Chinese American community has been a stakeholder for as long as the history of the city itself.

“By any measure,” said the financier, “Chinese in San Francisco ought to be running the show. But you are not.”

Instead of gaining two additional Asian American supervisors, the API community lost two representatives under district elections and was left with Leland Yee, the only Asian American on the Board.

Hellman urged Chinese Americans to become active, develop leadership in civic and community affairs, and get out and vote. Hellman is no stranger to Chinese American causes. He was instrumental in supporting CAVEC, and supported the local acquisition of the San Francisco Examiner by the Fang Family. Moreover, he donated money for the recount in District 7, where Mabel Teng lost by 38 votes.

As Hellman said, Chinese Americans aren’t running the show — they aren’t even stakeholders in the governance of the city.

Chinese Americans aren’t even stakeholders in CAVEC. Among the organization’s major donors, Asian American corporate or individual donors are scarce. The top 16 donors were Chevron, Wells Fargo, Anheuser-Busch, Bank of America, Host Marriott, Levi Strauss, Norcal Waste Management, State Farm, and Hellman.

The only sponsors with an Asian American connection were Providian, which is headed by South Asian American Shailesh Mehta; the Asia Foundation; and New California Media, which supports ethnic media outlets.

Among the smaller sponsors were the S.F. Apartment Association, Coalition for Better Housing, and the Committee on Jobs. These groups have recognized that the Asian American community empathizes with their concerns for more balance in the landlord-tenant debate on rent control, for land use/development issues such as Propositions K and L, and for fiscal conservatism. “The City has everything to gain from your community’s healthy doses of common sense and moderation, enterprise and vitality,” Hellman said.

To compare, most of the 10 supervisors present at the dinner tend to be pro-tenant, want to slow down or stop development, or favor a tax-and-spend laundry-list such as Board President Tom Ammiano’s “people’s budget.”

In a decade, corporate contributions have reaped returns. Chinese American turnout was a major factor in the 1991 and 1999 mayoral victories of conservative Frank Jordan and centrist Willie Brown, respectively. Both mayors have sought balance on rent control and development issues.

If Asian Americans registered and voted, then last year’s Board of Supervisors’ election could be considered a fluke. Asians, who make up 40 percent of the population, were only 20 percent of the vote. In the future, CAVEC could help double that registration rate.

Other contributors to CAVEC included State Senator John Burton, Supervisor Gavin Newsom, as well as former and future political candidates Douglas Chan, Meagan Levitan, Justin Tin, Darryl Honda, and AsianWeek’s Fiona Ma. They have become stakeholders because their political futures depend, in part, upon CAVEC’s ability to increase the Chinese American vote.

At the fundraiser, Mabel Teng was honored. “I am going to spend my little break from public service working with CAVEC to register more people to vote, to get out the vote, and to educate people how to vote,” said Teng. “I am not done with politics. I’ll be back.”

The emergence of Latino politics in the 2000 election was motivated in part by dot-com and live-work over-development in the Mission District. However, a revamped board with new Supervisors Matt Gonzalez and Gerardo Sandoval, and a slowing economy may have alleviated threats to the Latino community.

Should Asian Americans wait for a major catastrophe, before they become stakeholders at City Hall?