APA Bench Deepens
July 29, 2005
A NEW ATTITUDE … I see a healthy trend evolving around the country and California regarding this community’s response to APA candidates seeking financial support and endorsements for upcoming elections in 2006.
Many of our candidates are winning seats on school boards and local government. The carryover effect is that we now have the largest number of APAs serving in state legislatures and in state constitutional offices. The bench of APA candidates for state and congressional offices grows deeper and this community is having the luxury of facing multiple choices of APA candidates to support.
Just look at what happened in the San Jose City Council primary with two strong Vietnamese women candidates, Linda Nguyen and Madison Nguyen, facing off in the runoff. In Edison, New Jersey, Jun Choi has a chance to become the second Korean American mayor in this country (Jin Yang of Corte Madera was the first). And Houston’s city councilman Gordon Quan is being urged to run against House leader Tom DeLay, for Congress. Due to the sudden and sad passing of Assemblyman Mike Gordon, Torrance City Councilman Ted Lieu is considered a formidable candidate for this seat. The talented Lieu served as campaign manager for Mike Gordon’s assembly campaign.
The pool of qualified APA candidates seeking higher office is definitely more talented, more seasoned and more sophisticated and thus, more competitive. These are exciting times indeed.
Just being Asian isn’t enough again: I used this phrase in my last column when I discussed the issue of APA role models and leaders. This also applies to APA candidates running for elected office.
I remember those hungry years when this community was so eager to increase our number at all levels of government that it became more absorbed with the notion of “quantity vs. quality.” Instead of doing an honest job in helping to vet and evaluate APA candidates, our community was not only too polite to criticize, but we also gave our candidates free rides because we were more concerned about breaking barriers and increasing numbers. As a result, we have had our share of major public disappointments.
Doing the “Asian loyalty” thing: For many years, I financially supported APA candidates simply because they were APA even though I knew they had no chance of winning. This was very frustrating to my husband of 35 years who was responsible for the household budget. However, he threw in the towel years ago because he was all too familiar with my passion about getting more APAs to run for office.
I even occasionally “bit my lip” with some lesser-qualified candidates. But, there were so few candidates running at the time, I felt that I was doing the right thing. I also must confess I was concerned about being questioned on the loyalty factor.
In reality, my judgment was flawed because our elected representatives should be among the best, period. My community also deserves the best representation, period. My rich experiences have shown me the best representation for a specific community does not necessarily have to be by a person of the same ethnicity. The very fact that APAs are successful in representing districts that are not dominated by an APA population proves my point.
No more free rides: I and our community have come to learn that the number of excellent APA candidates running for office today means we weigh our support for APA candidates just as we evaluate all candidates.
One of the healthiest political discussions I experienced of late was among a respected group of board members regarding the endorsement of a specific APA candidate. Despite loyalty, personal friendships and APA philosophy, this specific candidate’s track record did not represent the position of the majority of members. Ultimately, this influential group’s board of directors decided not to endorse. This exercise is a far cry from the days when the endorsement of APA candidates was almost automatic.
The competition for community resources is also becoming fiercer, forcing even more competitive APA candidates in terms of personal, professional and political qualifications. Hopefully we will keep growing an even higher quality of representation deserving of this community.
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