ONCE AND FUTURE KING: The API Legislative Caucus Institute — chaired by Assemblyman Ted Lieu, run by consultant Pam Cheuh, and founded by AsianWeek columnist and APA political godmom Maeley Tom — will honor Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, with the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award on April 15 at the Sacramento Convention Center. Contact Joyce Iseri at capi.institute @yahoo.com for details. … Aspiring congressman Yul Kwon will be guest emcee and will make the rounds in the state Capitol. Earlier this year, the San Mateo resident seriously considered a run for the San Francisco/San Mateo 12th District seat once held by the late Rep. Tom Lantos, who will be likely succeeded by Jackie Speier this week. But keep an eye on the Survivor winner, who has used his fame to advance APA issues like bone marrow transplants. He’s an ex-Circuit Court of Appeals clerk, and as an aide to Sen. Joe Lieberman, he had a hand in crafting the Homeland Security bill and technology legislation. While Kwon passed up a run, he could benefit from inspired Obama volunteers who have been looking for a new face in politics. …
LOSING IN THE LONG-TERM: State Sen. Leland Yee and Assemblywoman Fiona Ma should take note of the lavender-on-lavender bloodbath and avoid their yellow-on-yellow fight if there’s any notion of a challenger over Leland’s state Senate seat. It’s quite possible that former Marin Assemblyman Joe Nation may edge challenger San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno and nab incumbent Carole Migden’s 3rd District state Senate seat — which would leave the city’s LGBT community with a long-term loss. Not only would the state’s LGBT seat — home to Chinatown, Manilatown, Japantown, Koreatown, Little Saigon and other APA villages — not be occupied by a gay or lesbian official, but Nation or the powers-that-be could dilute the chance of another LGBT candidate by moving the state Senate seat further north into Marin and out of San Francisco in reapportionment after the 2010 census. …
2000 GERRYMANDER: A major portion of liberal LGBT communities south of the Castro/Upper Market were excised into Yee’s more moderate 8th state Senate district after the 2000 census when state Sen. John Burton occupied the seat. …
YELLOW-ON-YELLOW: That same scenario could repeat if Yee and Ma knock each other, leaving someone to gerrymander the heavily APA districts of the 12th Assembly and 8th state Senate out of the hands of future APA successors. …
MOUSE THAT COULD ROAR: It’s the Year of the Rat. With Leno and Nation neck-and-neck in the latest polls and Migden trailing, nearly 30,000 APA Democratic and Independent APA voters are positioned to crown a winner, and that winner could reward them for their support. APA tenant voters, especially in Chinatown, Little Saigon (Tenderloin) and Manilatown (SoMa), already have a major incentive to turn out: the fear of the repeal of rent control under Proposition 98 on the June ballot. …
Go to asianweek.com for more on Olympic boycotts, media bias over Carole Migden and Ed Jew’s legal troubles.swong@asianweek.com. You could reach him at (415)321-5886.