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United We Stand

Asian American Assembly members create Asian Pacific Islander caucus

By Ji Hyun Lim

Since 1998, when he entered state office, Assemblyman George Nakano, D-Torrance, and former Assemblyman Mike Honda had discussed the possibility of creating an Asian American caucus. Among the 80 representatives, however, they were the only Asian Americans — one short of the necessary three legislators needed to form an official caucus.

Now that Carol Liu, D-Pasadena, and Wilma Chan, D-Oakland, have joined him, Nakano’s vision has become a reality. On March 22, he announced the creation of the first Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus (APILC). He serves as chair of the committee, while Chan and Liu are vice chairs.

“There’s never been more than two Asian Americans in the assembly in the history of state government,” Nakano said. “In fact, there was a 12-year period when there was not a single Asian American in the state legislature.”

Said Liu: “This year, we have three people of Asian descent — three is the magic number, and we decided to make a caucus.”

Like the Black Caucus, the Latino Caucus, and the Moderate Democratic Caucus, APILC is a special interest group set up to allow dialogue between members with similar interests.

Nakano stressed the importance of the APILC in representing the 3.8 million API residents statewide.

Because the APILC was officially formed in January, the three chairs have yet to conduct a strategic meeting to flesh out their agenda for the API community. But issues that are at the top of the list include: immigration, hate crimes, health care access, civil rights and education.

In response to Census 2000, reapportionment and redistricting are other key priorities that require the Assembly, state Senate, Board of Equalization and Congress to collaborate in efforts to ensure the API community is accurately represented, according to Nakano.

“The timing couldn’t have been better, with Assembly members Carol Liu and Wilma Chan joining me,” he said, adding, “This caucus will really serve as a tool to work with a diverse statewide community, representing some 30 different ethnicities, and providing a forum and voice for the myriad of issues facing us all.”

According to Liu, the caucus will also be symbolic. Asian Americans will have a resource base to turn to if they wish to become involved in social or political activity.

For example, the Caucus hopes to encourage more Asian Americans to seek office. Although the APILC is limited in financial contributions because of Proposition 34, which capped individual contributions at $3,000 per election, Liu said the APILC will support API candidates by advising and endorsing them.

As a liaison, the APILC will also educate legislatures about issues concerning the Asian American community.

APILC’s most recent efforts resulted in the state Legislature’s first Chinese New Year’s and Day of Remembrance events, during which Nakano, Chan and Liu spoke of health care and immigration issues, and facilitated group forums.

Aside from the Caucus, Liu, Nakano and Chan have focused their attention in different areas. Chan is working on language access issues and earthquake relief efforts for Gujurat, India. She is also working to pass a bill for welfare benefits for legal immigrants. Meanwhile, Liu is trying to get the Chinese American Museum funded in Los Angeles, and Nakano is chairing the Budget Subcommittee on State Administration and the Select Committee on the Aerospace Industry.

“We are serving as role models for others who follow us,” Liu said “We’re all very excited. People can talk to us about their issues. There wasn’t anybody they could talk to before.”