GOP Matt Fong and Democrat Mike Honda Size Up the Election

By Sam Chu Lin
Special to AsianWeek

Asian Pacific American politicians like former California State Treasurer Matt Fong, a Republican, were enjoying the sweet smell of victory following Tuesday’s election while Democratic Representative Mike Honda was filled with mixed reactions. Like his Silicon Valley congressional colleagues, Honda easily won re-election to his second term of office, but he was greatly disappointed at the national results, especially in Congress, as the Republicans have taken control of both houses.

“It could mean that Republicans will have their way,” he analyzed. “They’ll jam the stuff through by the numbers and not even have us present in terms of voting.

“What it does tell the Democrats is that we have to get out there again and make sure that people hear our voices,” he added, “that we’re representing them and their issues and not allow the cover-up for Enron and the other corporate scandals that have gone on.”

Fong, who is the chairman of the federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Advisory Committee, credited President Bush’s “high risk strategy” for the Republicans’ victories.

“He put his reputation and his vision at the head of the voters’ minds the last two weeks by campaigning everywhere across the country,” Fong stated. “And the voters responded in a very positive fashion.”

Honda feels the president succeeded by focusing the nation’s attention on the threat of terrorism versus the poor economy.

“I think the peoples’ guts were fixated on how they are going to make their payments,” he elaborated, “whether they’re going to have a job, what happened to their pension, but that didn’t resonate loud enough and wasn’t connected to the outcome of [these races], and it’s unfortunate.”

Now that the Republicans have control of Congress and the White House, both Honda and Fong agree the next two years — especially how the Republicans handle the economy — will impact the next national election.

Fong predicts that the Bush administration will “introduce bold economic moves” including the privatization of social security and getting rid of the inheritance tax, to jump start the economy.

“A lot of Democrats were overly exuberant and confident, thinking that this weak economy was easily blamed on President Bush,” the Los Angeles attorney declared, “And the voters didn’t buy it.”

There was at least another positive note for Honda. None of his Asian Pacific American colleagues in Congress were negatively impacted by the election.

“All the congress folks who are Asian Americans will come back,” he stated. “I am confident of that. We lost Patsy Mink. I think we’re going to have a lot of attention being paid to a special election in Hawai‘i to make sure that we return a Democrat. The Asian Pacific American Caucus has made an effort to make sure our communities across the country are activated and energized.”

Both Fong and Honda do agree that both parties still need to pay more attention to APAs.

“I think both the Republican as well as the Democratic Parties have recognized the growing significance of APAs,” Fong stated, “but still both parties, I feel, haven’t fully appreciated all that APAs bring to the table. It is not just the fund-raising power nor is it the number of votes — and that’s growing significantly. The true contributions come from the intellectual properties and the thinking.”

Reacting to the outcome of the gubernatorial election in New Mexico, where former Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson emerging as the winner, Fong was critical of the APA community for failing to attack Richardson in his run for office.

“It surprised me from the APA community, which was so vocal on protecting civil rights and being political about it — especially the Democrats from my community,” he stated, “I really didn’t see any pressure being put on Bill Richardson for his outrageous acts and how he mistreated Wen Ho Lee.

“If APAs are going to be taken seriously we need to have consistency, and we need to be active advocates across the board and they should also have been active in New Mexico.”