Community leaders converged on the McCain headquarters in Washington last week to meet with McCain campaign manager Rick Davis and Asian American and Pacific outreach coordinator Kishan Putta, to discuss upcoming activities and initiatives. Outreach efforts to be implemented at the local level were addressed.
The campaign meeting was well attended. Representation from various regions of the United States included: Betty Wu, Joe Melookaran, David Cohen, Akshay Desai, Michelle Steel, Howard Li, Clayton Fong, William Kil, Derrick Nguyen, John Duong, and Erik Wang.
Gov. Felix Camacho, Lt. Gov. Michael Cruz, and Jess Torres will host a McCain dinner next week in Guam, with an expected packed crowd.
Community surrogate speakers will be deployed to various events celebrating Asian Pacific Heritage Month. Senator McCain continues with his vigorous campaign schedule.
— Rudy Pamintuan
Hillary Clinton’s tenacity and perseverance have moved many voters who were on the fence or the other side. But the results on May 6 were largely based on socio-economics and somewhat predictable. Where Indiana’s working class demographics mirrored Ohio and Pennsylvania, the results again favored Hillary. North Carolina’s black vote, at about 30 percent, went overwhelmingly to the challenger.
AAPIs for Hillary member Ray Buenaventura is the current president of the Filipino American Democratic Club of San Mateo County. The group held a successful dinner May 2 in Daly City, Calif. Alice Bulos, known as the “grande dame” of Filipino American politics and a great advocate for Hillary, gave inspiring remarks.
Buenaventura, who was elected a district-level delegate for Hillary last month, will join four other Filipinos in a run for the Democratic Central Committee: Mike Guingona (former Mayor of Daly City); Ora Seyler; Roberty Uy; and Buenaflor Nicolas.
Physician Sophia Yen, founder of aapiforhillary.com along with husband, Steve Ko, is also working on the NOW PAC Internet campaign for Hillary.
John Chiang, California’s state controller and California Hillary Clinton co-chair, joined Claudine Cheng in officiating San Francisco’s launch of APA Heritage Month on May 5.
Vida Benavides and Daphne Kwok have been pouring heart and soul into the first-of-its-kind APIAVote Presidential Forum to take place May 17 at UC Irvine.
— Julie D. Soo
Congratulations to Obama coordinator Ria Baldevia for helping Sen. Barack Obama score a victory in Guam last Saturday. Grande Lum and Nan Santiago recruited virtual phone bankers last week to call voters there and spread the word on why Obama is the best choice for President.
Tuesday’s win in North Carolina and a strong showing in Indiana have pushed Obama to within 185 delegates of the nomination.
“We’ve seen that it’s possible to overcome the politics of division and the politics of distraction,” Obama said to a North Carolina crowd Tuesday evening. “That it’s possible to overcome the same old, negative attacks that are always about scoring points, and never about solving our problems.”
At a May 1st Obama happy hour event at Roe Restaurant in San Francisco, Georgia McCauley shared memories of Barack’s mother, Ann Soetoro, and of Barack growing up in Hawai’i.
Angelica Jongco is organizing a booth to register voters at the Asian Heritage Street Fair on May 17 in San Francisco’s Japantown. Email angelicaforobama@ gmail.com to help.
Obama supporters will be among the more than 2,500 AAPIs expected to attend the very first APIAVote Presidential Town Hall on May 17 at the University of California, Irvine. Email go@apaforobama.com to attend.
— Cate Park and Keith Kamisugi