Mission Possible In The California 12th
January 13, 2008
It’s time for Asian America to step up and finally stake our claim — the California 12th Congressional District is undeniably an Asian Pacific American seat.
In a once in a political generation opportunity, a position in the U.S. House of Representatives is going to be passed on to a candidate who will represent the largest Asian Pacific American population in the continental United States — home to one of the greatest concentrations of Chinese, Filipino, Samoan and Tongan Americans.
After 27 years, Rep. Tom Lantos, the powerful chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced on Jan. 2 that he will retire for health reasons and will not seek re-election to represent southwest San Francisco and northern San Mateo counties.
This seat, adjacent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s own heavily APA 8th District in San Francisco, has national implications on representation, immigration, small business, education, homeownership and civil rights.
For years, the collection of present and past APA congressional leaders was always small in number, but in most cases, seniority and the resultant clout extended their power and that of Asian Pacific Americans well beyond their communities.
That’s been the case with Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka of Hawai‘i, Rep. Doris Matsui and Mike Honda of California, and Rep. Eni Faleomavaega of American Samoa. The influence of Inouye and Akaka had pushed legislation further along to end the injustice of long-denied benefits for Filipino American World War II veterans.
High-profile congressional seats are also another rung to higher office. Bobby Jindal’s congressional seat elevated him to be governor of Louisiana. South of Lantos’ 12th District seat, Congressman Norman Mineta of San Jose went on become cabinet secretary — putting him in the immediate line of succession to be president of the United States.
Today, there are many battle-tested APA candidates who could seek this seat. APAs account for 34 percent of the district population. The excitement of an APA candidate could boost voter registration well beyond the existing 47,000 APAs registered. And the purse strings of the community will open wide. The best APA candidates have also won without large APA voting blocs by building coalitions, as Jindal proved in his 2007 Louisiana race.
It’s mission possible now. Let’s make it a reality.
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