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Sound Off in Washington

By Rebecca Cook/AP

Huddled under tents that sheltered them from a cold rain at the Washington state Capitol in Olympia, about 500 Asians and Pacific Islanders chanted along with Rep. Kip Tokuda, D-Seattle: “We are here to stay!”

That message at the annual Asian and Pacific Islander rally sounded particularly strong in light of the census data released last week. Washington’s population of Asian and Pacific Islanders has increased 78 percent in the last decade.

Now leaders of the diverse community hope to turn those numbers into political clout.

“The political power within the Asian Pacific Islander community is still developing,” said Craig Shimabukoro of Seattle. He estimated that about 75 percent of the recent growth has been from immigrants and refugees, many of whom represent untapped political power.

“There’s been a big push for trying to get more people to become citizens,” said Shimabukoro.

The point of the March 27 rally and lobbying day was to pressure legislators to avoid cuts to human services and to fully fund programs for immigrants and refugees, such as translation services.

Those who attended, many of them elderly, came from many different backgrounds: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hmong, Samoan, Laotian, Cambodian, Indian. There were even a few older immigrants from Belarus and Latvia. Eastern European immigrants have many of the same needs as Asian immigrants, so they were invited to come along, said Lua Pritchard of the Pierce County Asian Pacific Islander Coalition.

The highlight was a speech by Gov. Gary Locke, the first Chinese American governor in the nation, and an obvious favorite of the crowd.

Locke promised to try to protect families who “play by the rules” from having welfare benefits cut off by a five-year time limit, and said he supports more translation services and training to make sure agencies can serve a variety of languages and cultures.

“Service providers must take into account the different cultures and needs of our different ethnic communities,” Locke said.

He concluded with a surefire applause line: “I am proud to be Asian American!”

Along with Locke, there are four Asian American legislators, three in the House and one in the Senate. By comparison, there are two Hispanic legislators and two black legislators.

Asians make up 5.5 percent of Washington’s population and 2.7 percent of the Legislature.