Lantos-Speier Opportunity for APAs
December 24, 2007
The anticipated June 2008 primary challenge by former state Senator Jackie Speier, 57, against 27-year incumbent Rep. Tom Lantos, who will turn 80 in February, has the makings of a close race for one of the most Asian Pacific American districts (southwest San Francisco and northern San Mateo counties) in the nation. The 34 percent APA population includes large concentrations of Chinese, Filipinos, Tongans and Samoan Americans. While more than 18,000 or 11 percent of Democrats are APA, they’ll be a factor in a close election. Also, keep in mind that out of the last three primaries, Indian American Ro Khanna in 2004 gave Lantos his biggest challenge, winning one-fifth of Democratic votes; in total 27 percent voted against Lantos. Speier, who will likely be more well-known, popular and well-funded than Khanna, is expected to reap from that 27 percent … SHOP AND COMPARE: Now APAs can really size up which candidate has responded to APA issues (e.g. immigration, business and education). Also, voters will debate whether to retain congressional seniority (which wins major committee posts), district funding and services (e.g. Jaynry Mak and Christine Padilla, an occasional AsianWeek contributor, are Lantos’ APA liaisons; South Asian community activist Satinder Singh and Chinese for Affirmative Action’s Susan Hsieh worked for Speier), and effectiveness now that Democrats have held Congress for two years… A fresh face like Speier, who barely lost the nomination for lieutenant governor in 2006, will need to identify compelling reasons to unseat Lantos. Her predicament is the same faced by former supervisor Mabel Teng, 48, when she successfully unseated incumbent Doris Ward (who said she was “over 65”) as San Francisco assessor-recorder in 2002. Teng had to be careful using age as an issue in light of what happened in 1998, when 83-year-old S.F. Superior Court Judge Dorothy von Beroldingen defeated attorney Nancy Davis, who questioned her bench time missed and led some to imply “von B” was too old for the court.
DINO MEETS RHINO?: For its 50th anniversary Year of the Rat dinner this February, the Chinese American Democratic Club may invite Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as its keynote speaker. Inviting the Republican sounds incongruous. However, the feisty, independent club (which will elect a new president to take over after former gubernatorial candidate and CPA Calvin Louie) has considered itself a DINO (Democratic in Name Only) as much as Arnold is considered a RhINO (Republican in Name Only) by Republican purists. The group — although aligned with the California Democratic Council in 1958 — bolted the Democratic Party’s ranks in 1986 after successfully supporting then independent and conservative Supervisor Quentin Kopp for state Senate over Democratic Assemblyman Lou Papan. It was a bitterly contested endorsement tied up in the “Julie Tang for supervisor” race that folks on opposite ends still vividly recall to this day. CADC in 2006 supported favorite son and now suspended Supervisor Ed Jew, a former Republican and an independent before he became a Democrat …
NATURAL BODS USE TIGER BALM: Anyone notice no Asian American or Asian baseball players in Senator George Mitchell’s report on HGH and steroids in pro baseball? …
Reach Samson Wong at (415) 321-5886 or swong@asianweek.com.
Comments
Got something to say?