The stunning demise of prolific Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu is another tragic setback for Asian Pacific American engagement in electoral politics. On the one hand, this must be seen as an isolated incident. Hsu did not share his meteoric rise with the community. Indeed, he often boasted of private meetings with heavyweights like Senator Edward Kennedy, New York Governor Elliot Spitzer and Presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton.
It is also important to note — that whatever his faults in other unrelated criminal matters — that there have been no indications of any improper influence peddling. Indeed, it seems Hsu’s major reward was hanging out with the famous and the powerful.
On the other hand, troubling questions remain. He also developed a significant fund-raising network, mastering the system of “bundling” campaign contributions from multiple donors — many of whom were Asian.
No matter how you cut it, one more high-profile campaign scandal involving an Asian American cannot help but have a chilling effect both on campaign operations, but also on the growing involvement of Asian Pacific Americans in politics.
We must remember, though, that this is an isolated incident; and that our community is making progress. When a similar fund-raising scandal erupted a decade ago, the Democratic National Committee overreacted by screening all Asian-surnamed donors. That kind of racial profiling is not happening today.
In our own community, the Organization of Chinese Americans and APIAVote have tried to get ahead of the story by calling for responsible news reporting, and not broadstroke generalizations of the community. Many APA leaders are encouraging internal and external discussions on the differences between the APA culture of giving and how money is used to influence modern American elections.
The reality is that the American political campaign process is among the most complicated in the world, wound up with a myriad of other issues like freedom of speech and the Electoral College. The further reality is that we have more Asian Pacific Americans elected to public office and participating in electoral politics than at any point in the history of the United States.
This is another tough blow to the progress of our efforts. But our community has no choice but to continue to push forward and persevere in American politics.
