Written by By Walter Alarkon | Posted: 02/06/08 07:46 PM [ET]
Asian Americans, whose voting power has been much less scrutinized than of African-American and Hispanic voters, were a significant factor in Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) victory in Tuesday’s California Democratic primary.
Asian Americans, whose voting power has been much less scrutinized than of African-American and Hispanic voters, were a significant factor in Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) victory in Tuesday’s California Democratic primary.
Asian American voters made up 8 percent of the Democratic vote in the Golden State and supported Clinton by a 3-1 margin. They are now poised to be a factor in upcoming contests as the battle between Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) continues.
In Washington state, which caucuses Saturday, Asian Americans outnumber blacks. In Maryland, which votes in a primary Tuesday, both Asian Americans and Hispanics account for 4 percent of the population. And in Hawaii, which votes Feb. 19, they make up nearly 41 percent of the population, more than any other demographic.
Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have longstanding ties to Asian American communities, which they have relied on at the polls and to raise campaign funds. Those relationships appeared to help Clinton in California, and could further boost her campaign going forward.
“They’ve seen the Clintons over the last 12-13 years,” said Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. “Obama, they’ve just come in contact with him in this last campaign. If Obama were to have a little more time, I think his exposure would have been greater.”
Asian Americans still remember that President Clinton appointed an Asian American, Norman Mineta, as his Transportation secretary, said Honda, who has not endorsed a candidate. Hillary Clinton tapped Gary Locke, the first Asian American governor of the lower 48 states, to co-chair her Washington state campaign.
An Asian American political action committee, the 80/20 Initiative, endorsed Clinton over Obama in the California primary because she answered an unequivocal “Yes” to a questionnaire asking whether she would eliminate discrimination against Asian Americans in the workplace.
Among Asian Americans in Congress, Clinton has received the endorsements of Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.).
Clinton’s strength in the Asian American community was underlined in April, when a fundraiser she held in Los Angeles’ Chinatown yielded $380,000 in campaign contributions.
Asian Americans long have been a source of funds for the Clinton’s but sometimes this has been less than helpful. The Democratic National Committee had to return nearly half of the $3.4 million in political donations raised by John Huang, a Commerce Department official in the Clinton administration, after the DNC found that the money came from questionable donors. Another figure in the fund-raising controversy, Charlie Trie, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bill Clinton’s legal defense fund, but was later found to have violated campaign finance laws.
Last year, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign returned $850,000 in contributions bundled by Norman Hsu after he was arrested on fraud charges.
Obama also has ties to the Asian American community, some of which are more personal than Clinton’s. He lived in Indonesia when he was a child, he speaks Indonesian and his half-sister is half-Indonesian. He was born and attended high school in Hawaii, where his parents met while attending the University of Hawaii and where his grandparents lived.
In Congress, Obama has the backing of Del. Eni Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa). He’s also supported by Mineta and Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), who is white but serves as chairman of the Asian Pacific American Caucus’s immigration task force.
Abercrombie, an Obama supporter, chalked part of Clinton’s strength among Asian Americans to mail-in voting, which had been taking place for weeks before Tuesday.
Asian Americans who voted in January, when California primary voting began, were likely to know more about Clinton than Obama, and recall the things she and her husband did with the Asian American community in the 1990s.
“We knew what he was all about, what he could do, but other people didn’t. It’s going to be a matter of exposure; that exposure is now just beginning to peak,” Abercrombie said.
Abercrombie said that the more Asian Americans get to know more about Obama’s story, as the son of an immigrant who grew up in Hawaii and who values his family, the more they’ll be likely to vote for him.
Some members of Congress, however, suggest Clinton has an edge because she has been on the national stage for so long, and as a result Asian Americans are more familiar with her.
Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) recalled meeting President Bill Clinton with other Asian American leaders when she was her state’s lieutenant governor. Asian American “voters may be older, and [Hillary Rodham Clinton] does well among older people,” she said. “They have a familiarity with her.”
Honda said Asian Americans have been overlooked in a campaign so far that has sometimes focused on whom black and Hispanic voters will support. Honda said neither the candidates nor the media have sufficiently addressed issues important to a potential swing demographic.
“It’s just that they’ve got to understand [they have to] mention our community,” said Honda, who hasn’t endorsed a candidate. “When you hear people mention your community in a public debate, you all of a sudden exist in the minds of people, the media, the campaign, the candidates.”
He said that he’s heard Obama and Clinton mention the Asian Americans only once each during debates. Media coverage hasn’t helped either, Honda said; when CNN broke down the votes of Californians on Super Tuesday, it showed votes by whites, blacks, Latinos and “all other races,” instead of Asian Americans, he noted.
Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) also said Asian Americans have generally been overlooked by the candidates. He said he endorsed Howard Dean for president in 2004 because he was the one candidate to attend a town-hall meeting in Washington D.C. on Asian American issues.
“I hope that whoever becomes president makes appointments to cabinet and subcabinet positions to all executive branches, makes appointments to the judiciary, makes appointments that reflect the multi-varied heritage that is America,” he said.
Honda said he doesn’t plan to endorse a candidate as a DNC vice chairman. But he reminded Obama after the debate in Los Angeles last month that his sister is half-Asian American, hoping it would prompt him to address Asian American issues more in high-profile events.
“We as a community have to also tell them, ‘We’re Asian Americans,’” Honda said. “When we say that forthrightly, and not be polite and subtle, then they’ll remember.”
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