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State Assembly to Become More Asian?

HEARING ON ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS: With terms limited to six years in the state assembly, David Lee of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee expects a high turnover rate, possibly resulting in more Asian Americans elected to the 80-member body in the next 10 years.

“The Asian community can see that number double or triple,” Lee said, “but getting the lines is only half the battle. Registration is the other half.”

With population shifts between the 1990 and 2000 census, the legislature will have to adjust district lines of ten districts so that they represent populations of approximately 423,000.

The State Assembly will hold the only Bay Area hearing on the redistricting May 18 at 11 a.m. at 505 Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco.

Election of Asian Pacific Islanders depends on the creation of high API populated districts in San Francisco and the South Bay and increasing the voter registration rates of APIs.

Under current lines, the Bay Area is home to four of the five most populated Asian Pacific Islander districts in California. Included among them is Assemblyman Kevin Shelley’s 12th District. There, some 44 percent of the 430,943 residents are API, but the population makes up just 21 percent of the area’s registered voters. The district includes western and most of the southern neighborhoods of San Francisco and the upper portion of Daly City.

In the South Bay, the second highest API assembly population is John Dutra’s District 20, which includes Fremont and Milpitas. Forty-two percent of its 442,818 residents are API, but they make up only 14 percent of voters.

Monterey Park’s District 49 is the third highest API district, which is over 40 percent Asian American. That’s followed by Elaine Alquist’s District 22 (Cupertino, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale) at 30 percent, and Lou Papan’s District 19 (Daly City, South San Francisco, and Millbrae), which is 29 percent API.

AMMIANO CALLS YEE ‘SELF-SERVING’: Calling Supervisor Leland Yee’s votes a “self-serving agenda,” Board President Tom Ammiano ripped into his colleague during the May 10 Chinese American Democratic Club meeting.

“In general, for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, we are disturbed… by the one person who represents the Asian American community,” Ammiano said in an obvious reference to Yee. “The real issue in terms of this individual [is that] he was involved in gay issues and now there’s a distancing.”

Ammiano pointed out three votes Yee had made – the most recent on May 7 against sex change benefits to transgender civil service workers. Ammiano also criticized Yee’s positions on a gay youth shelter and a school district ROTC program that discriminated against gays.

Yee is running for the Democratic nomination in the 12th Assembly District. Majority Leader Kevin Shelley, who currently occupies the seat, will be termed out next year.

Ammiano pleaded for help from the club, which had supported him, his allies — and Yee. “We need some other validation,” he said.

In effect, Yee’s actions have raised doubts about future Asian American and gay coalition building.

Ammiano, however, did support Yee’s symbolic but controversial board commendation of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao (which colleague Chris Daly delayed) and supported equal access to city services for Chinese-speaking residents. In the past, he said that Harvey Milk and Gordon Lau mutually supported him for district supervisor in the 1970s, and that the Harvey Milk Club had supported Ben Tom for school board.

WILL LIM PASS MUSTER?: The mayor’s Planning Commission’s selection of Myrna Lim, a Filipino American who ran for supervisor in the Excelsior, will test the Board of Supervisor’s Rules Committee. Eight votes are needed to override her selection.

Last October, Board President Tom Ammiano called a special hearing of the Rules Committee for William Fay and Roselyn Baltimore’s appointments to the Planning Commission. Mayor Willie Brown’s allies, who made up a board majority, approved the Chinese American Fay and the African American Baltimore. Meanwhile, Fay’s supporters accused Ammiano of being anti-Asian.

This time, the tables have turned. An Ammiano board majority will scrutinize Lim’s appointment, especially at the Rules Committee — where Brown critic Matt Gonzalez, conservative Tony Hall, and Ammiano, himself, sit. As members of the Rules Committee, the three are responsible for reviewing commission appointments.

Lim originally ran for supervisor last year and finished a strong third with 19 percent of the vote in the heavily Filipino American and Chinese American district, which is now 46 percent Asian American. She lost in the primary, but later supported incumbent and mayoral ally Amos Brown over Gerardo Sandoval, who eventually won.