APAs in tune with the nation: According to Newsweek magazine, nationwide statistics showed APA voters leaned democratic, but less so than any other racial minority. Sixty-two percent of APAs favored democrats with just 37 percent favoring republicans. Compare that with blacks who voted 89 percent democratic and only 10 percent republican. Latinos also favored democrats 69 percent to 30 percent for republicans.
Honda’s political success keeps growing and growing: Congratulations to Mike Honda on his appointment to the most powerful fiscal committee in Congress, Appropriations. This appointment exemplifies the close relationship Honda has with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the enormous influence he has gained during his relative short time in Congress. It is not unusual for congressional members to wait for decades to receive such a powerful assignment, which is oftentimes based on seniority.
Political launching pad? The low-profile State Board of Equalization has changed to a potential political springboard to more lucrative statewide offices as exemplified by Chiang’s successful election to State Controller. With three dynamic APA women elected to the board, Betty Yee (D), Judy Chu (D) and Michelle Steele (R), will others follow this precedent setting pathway?
State Controller Chiang’s victory sends a message: New California State Controller John Chiang’s victory gave California APAs an opportunity to show the state, for once and for all, that the APA community is not the “weakest link” in the political food chain. The last-minute influx of millions of dollars from special interest groups targeting Chiang evoked an unprecedented ferocious response from the APA community in terms of dollars, threatened boycotts and a barrage of negative media blitz.
Sweet revenge: Software giant Intuit spent a million dollars to defeat John Chiang because his pilot program to make it easier for taxpayers to file simple returns had threatened sales of its TurboTax kit. Much to Intuit’s chagrin, one of outgoing State Controller Steve Westly’s last official acts this month was to use the State Franchise Board’s authority to make this pilot project program a permanent state program as of Jan. 2007.
Carole Hayashino takes over the APIA Legislative Caucus Institute: Carole Hayashino, a former Assembly candidate and current vice president of the California State University of Sacramento, will be the new president of the Institute, which is a nonprofit organization created by the APIA Legislative Caucus in 2004. The Institute co-sponsors the annual statewide APIA Caucus Policy summit with the APIA Legislative Caucus every spring in Sacramento.
This year, the institute also launched “Capitol Academy 120,” which provides an all-expense paid on-site leadership training program for seasoned local elected officials who are interested in pursuing statewide office. Graduates of the first class included prominent local elected officials like Dr. Paul Fong, San Jose, Ed Chau, Alhambra, Otto Lee, Sunnyvale, Pearl Cheng, Cupertino, Sukhee Kang, Irvine, Victor King, Glendale, Joaquin Lim, Walnut, Arlie Ricasa, Chula Vista, Lan Nguyen, Garden Grove and Randy Okamura, San Jose.
Flexing political muscle on national races: Three extraordinary women Bel Leong-Hong, chair of the DNC-APIA Caucus, Christine Chen, executive director of APIA Vote and Margaret Fung, executive director of Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, took the lead in organizing multi-pronged coalitions. They used their national resources to forge effective partnerships with the national party alongside local grassroots efforts mobilizing the APA vote in key states where the APA bloc could swing the results for victory. Leong-Hong provided an invaluable national network of update information about all APA candidates running statewide and nationwide.
Fung’s New York-based AALDEF exit poll demonstrated the end results of this strong collaborative effort to mobilize APA voters. In eight targeted states, APA voters showed their impact as follows: