Asian Fortune Your source for all things Asian American
Asian Fortune magazine’s new column explores news, views and cues in the exciting political sphere. The column touches the three branches of the federal government, state-level political tidbits, little known historical facts, and on occasion, a dose of gossip.
Asian Americans Retain Congressional Seats
In several primaries around the country on June 3, 2014, Asian-American incumbents held on to their seats in what have been described as “embarrassingly” low-turnout elections. Candidates such as Judy Chu (D), the incumbent from the 27th District in California; and Michael Honda (D) from California’s 17th District retained their congressional seats for another two-year term. Another two-term Congressman, Democrat Dr. Ami Bera from California’s third District; freshmen Mark Takano from California’s 41st District, Tammy Duckworth from Illinois’ 8th District and Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii’s 2nd District all won re-election bids to compete against Republican candidates in the general election this November.
RNC’s Take on Shinseki’s Resignation
On May 30, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus released a statement on the resignation of the Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki: “While we are eager to see the President finally engaging on this issue, this has never been about a single person or a single resignation…..Regardless of who the President wants running his department, it’s past time for the President to step up and fix this mess. He can start by calling on Harry Reid and his Senate Democrats to pass the bipartisan bill for accountability at the VA. Until then, personnel changes aren’t an answer to the problem for our veterans. It’s just musical chairs.”
Election Twist in California
The primary election for the California secretary of state became a little more interesting when state senator Leland Yee received 300,000 votes or 9.8 percent of the vote, coming in third place before two relatively well-heeled candidates. In a twist of irony, Yee was charged in March 2014 with allegedly trafficking firearms for the Chinese mafia, and trading favors for campaign cash. Several political pundits concluded that the Californian electorate just weren’t paying attention when they voted for Yee.
Honoring the Legacy of Yuri Kochiyama
Yuri Kochiyama, a civil rights activist who formed an unlikely friendship with civil rights activist, Malcolm X when he was still promoting black nationalism and later cradled his head in her hands as he lay dying from gunshot wounds in 1965, died June 1, 2014, in Berkeley, Calif. She was 93. The child of Japanese immigrants who settled in Southern California, Kochiyama knew discrimination well by the time she was a young woman. During World War II, she spent two years in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans in Arkansas, a searing experience that also exposed her to the racism of the Jim Crow South. The White House recently wrote a blog to highlight Kochiyama’s legacy, one in which the activist dedicated her life to the pursuit of social justice, not only for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, but for all communities of color. She was a strong voice in the campaign for reparations and a formal government apology for Japanese American internees through the Civil Liberties Act, which President Ronald Reagan signed into law in 1988.
Trends Show that Asian Americans Should Identify as Republicans; but Don’t
Rising incomes among other factors indicate that Asian Americans should be a natural fit for the Republican Party, yet they have flocked to the other side at a stunning pace, according to three researchers who have been studying the issue, and published their findings in February 2014.
In the 2012 presidential election, Democratic President Obama garnered 73 percent of the Asian American vote, and Asian Americans have been steadily moving to the Democratic Party over the last two decades, says Cecilia Mo, assistant professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, and one of three authors of the paper, Why do Asian Americans Identify as Democrats? Testing Theories of Social Exclusion and Intergroup Solidarity.
“It’s puzzling because in political science, it is well-documented that income is positively correlated with the Republican Party,” said Mo. “Yet here is this group (Asian Americans) going against this trend that we’ve noticed for decades. Moreover, wealthy Asian Americans are even more likely to vote for Democrats than poorer Asian Americans.”
The behavior of Asian American voters is going to be of increasing interest to both parties as time goes by, Mo said. “Asian Americans are now at 4 percent of the population and they are the fastest-growing ethnic group in this country.They are projected to be 9 percent of the U.S. population by 2050.”
Little Known Historical Fact
In 1956, Indian-born Dalip Singh Saund became the first Asian elected to Congress. Born 1899, Saund came to the United States in 1920 to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a doctorate degree in mathematics. Despite his education, Saund discovered that his career options were limited due to anti-immigrant feelings in the U.S. As a result, he worked in farming for the next 20 years; as well as began fighting discriminatory laws against Indians. In 1949, he and other Indians finally earned the right to become U.S. citizens, and in 1956, Saund left the fields of California for the halls of Congress. He served three terms in the House of Representatives, working to improve U.S.-Asian relations. His political career was cut short when he suffered a stroke while campaigning for a fourth term.
