The LA Times had an article recently talking about the increase in political officeholders among Asian Americans after this election. There are 20 statewide elected officials that are Asian Americans versus 16 before this election. I don't know if that translates into a high percentage as I don't know how many elected positions there are in the state government and the Times did not give any info regarding that in the article. An increase from 16 to 20 does translate into a 25% increase so that is not bad. There are not many Asians in high profile positions though. And no, Tan Nguyen, did not win his Congressional race.
The article talked about there may be a mistrust of Asians after the scandal involving money from China being donated to Al Gore a few years back. The Democrats refunded that money and most donations from legitimate Asian American sources. It was as if all Asians were considered same as people from communist China trying to buy influence. This in turn soured many Asian Americans from participating in politics. I don't know if this is all true like the Times said but I do think there is a reluctance of Asians to enter politics and there is a general reluctance of Americans to vote for an Asian American. How big are these two reluctances are subject to debate. Also Asian Americans are divided almost equally between Republicans and Democrats so an Asian candidate may not even get much more than 50% of the Asian votes even if he or she is well qualified.
One area that Californians seem to like see Asians in office is related to finances. In California we have three separate departments to waste, er, control our taxes. There is the treasurer, the controller, and the Board of Equalization. It is not clear to me the exact role of each of these and I don't know why we need all three. Even the federal government just has the dept. of the Treasury. Anyway John Chiang won the election for controller this year. As controller he will also serve on the Board of Equalization. There are 4 other spots of the Board and three of these were won by Asian American women. It seems to me Californians are reluctant to elect Asians in most positions except when it comes to controlling the money. Could it be that stereotype of Asians being good at math and saving money be a factor here?
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
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Well, I've calculated the numbers...just kidding. I think the only places an asian could do well in american politics are in California, the state of Washington and Hawaii. I think that asians are still considered "foreign" to the rest of america. They're perceived as outsiders to be blunt. I also don't think americans have gotten over the stereotype that they are sneaky and thus cannot be trusted. It is a long and difficult road for asian politicians. But to see strides being made in California is encouraging. Hopefully the ones that are in office will not disappoint and will be good politicians. The only way for asians to defeat the stereotypes is to prove otherwise (not saying that they should screw up the numbers if they're in the Treasury). I have witnessed the split along party lines between asians and yet there is a good amount who are independents like myself who do not agree with the two party system. I've sometimes wondered what party I would choose should I ever run for office. To this day, I don't know. But to run as an independent is almost impossible unless you have the financial backing to compete against the two main parties. Maybe we can get Jackie Chan to run for governor of California.
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