Political activists push for more API representation
 By Neela Banerjee
As plans for statewide redistricting get under way, the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans for Redistricting (CAPAFR) is leading efforts to coordinate communities in order to make sure California’s Asian Americans have a strong voice.
Redistricting comes on the heels of the census every ten years to make sure populations and political representation are equalized. This year California gains a district due to population increase; this district and all new legislative plans must be in place for the 2002 elections.
Originally formed in 1990, CAPAFR is a coalition started by now-Human Rights commissioner Yvonne Lee, Tessie Guillermo of the Asian Pacific Islander Health Forum, and Stewart Kwoh of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. CAPAFR’s objectives are to provide public awareness programs, solicit community involvement and develop technical proposals. They have been actively working since 1998 to organize around the 2000 Census. Nearly every major Asian American organization, spanning community, civil rights and public policy activities, are now a part of CAPAFR.
CAPAFR’s main goal is to make sure that communities of interest, such as minority and ethnic communities, are not diluted. After the 1990 census, many communities of interest across the state were divided. For example, the strong Vietnamese population in Southern California’s Orange County is split among three assembly districts, which weakens their proper representation in Sacramento.
“In 1990, it seemed like there were a lot of back room deals being struck,” Ivy Lee, of the Asian Law Caucus, said. “If you are in a minority community that doesn’t have a lot of representation in the legislature, like the APA community, then you get hurt.”
In 1990, the Democratic legislature and the Republican governor could not agree on redistricting lines, so the map was sent to the courts to decide.
“Back then we had to wait for the decisions to be made and then try and impact them,” Kathay Feng, of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, said.
Feng said that CAPAFR fought hard for a Japanese American community district in Southern California. Ten years later, this district is represented by George Nakano.
“That is where you can see why this is important,” Feng said.
In 1990, the Asian Law Caucus appeared before state legislative panels and the California Supreme Court in Wilson v. Eu to advocate for fair representation. In this case, the caucus fought for district lines that would create heavily Asian American districts. For example, in San Francisco they proposed a district that would cover Chinatown, Japantown, the Richmond District, the Sunset District, Bernal Heights and the Excelsior. The Asian Law Caucus filed this lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act, which protects communities of interest from being diluted.
This time around, CAPAFR is still working on proposed maps that they will submit to the committee next month. At a Redistricting Committee meeting last week in San Francisco, some 10 members of CAPAFR gave testimony that pushed the committee to keep the Voting Rights Act in mind and remember that race is an important factor when drawing these lines.
“We also encouraged the committee to have additional public hearings after they have an actual proposed map,” Lee said. “It is hard to grasp what is wrong with it when there are no lines in front of people.”
Because the San Francisco meeting was moved up two weeks from June 1 to May 18, many complained that they were not ready with proper maps and encouraged the Committee to schedule another hearing.
Both the 12th and the 13th Districts that cover San Francisco need to add thousands of people. Possible expansions could move District 12 down into San Mateo, which would cover most of Daly City, and the 13th District into Marin.
A number of representatives from Daly City testified, including Vice-mayor Michael Guingona, about the split of their city into more than one district.
“We are one of the only cities that has an Asian majority. Our ethnic communities don’t break down geographically, they are spread all over the city,” Guingona said. “Dividing the city will break down the political empowerment we could have.”
Feng said that CAPAFR’s redistricting efforts are really being done as a statewide effort because the bigger picture must be understood.
“This is really about having a lot of nuanced conversations among communities. You have to look at migration patterns, transportation and connections between various communities,” Feng said. “This is really a political empowerment issue, just like registering to vote and taking the census. It’s so that people’s votes actually have an impact.”
Lee, who has been doing outreach with CAPAFR for the past year, admits that it is a very time-consuming process because of all the details the community must consider and educate around.
“But it is so important,” Lee explained. “We talk about the disenfranchisement of the Florida voters in the last presidential election to make people understand. Whether their votes were counted or not was dependent on that specific district’s leadership, their elected and appointed officials. So, now this is the time, we have to make sure you have the power to choose who you want.” |
