Asian-Americans flex muscles in US Congress elections

Asian-Americans are growing in political clout in the United States and could be crucial to the outcome of upcoming legislative elections.

They are flexing their muscle in traditional strongholds like California as well as in big ticket races such as in Illinois.

At present, there are six Asian-American legislators in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and two in the Senate, also dominated by President George W. Bush's Republican Party.

Two Asian-Americans have a good shot at winning House seats in the November 7 elections and they could help tip the balance to the Democratic Party, which needs to pick up 15 seats to gain control of the chamber.

The two Democratic hopefuls are Maizie Hirono, a Japanese-American former lieutenant governor contesting against a state senator in Hawaii, and Tammy Duckworth, a Thai-American US Army helicopter pilot who lost both her legs in Iraq, battling for a traditionally Republican seat in the suburbs of Chicago.

Numbering 14 million, Asian-Americans make up only about four per cent of the 300 million US population but their votes are critical in about 100 of the 435 congressional districts, said William Marumoto, president of the Asian-Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.

"This time, we expect to win two more seats in the House and also increase the number of representatives at the local levels," said Marumoto, whose nonpartisan group seeks to build a politically empowered Asian community.

There are already more than 2,000 Asian-Americans serving in local, state and national offices in 38 states, said the 71-year-old Marumoto, a second generation Japanese-American and the first Asian-American to be appointed to a senior position in the White House, under President Richard Nixon.

As the fastest growing minority group in the United States, Asian-Americans are being courted by both the Republican and Democratic parties.

The US Census Bureau says the community's population could jump to 40 million or more in the next 50 years, further impacting the ballot box.

"The Asian American political tiger has sprung," said Toby Chaudhuri, spokesman for Campaign for America's Future.

The number of Asian American candidates for political office increased by a "dramatic" 21 per cent every two years over the past decade, he said.

"It's no longer surprising to see an Asian-American name on a ballotnot just in traditional Asian-American population centres like Hawaii and California, but in big ticket races in states like Illinois, Ohio, Iowa and Connecticut," he said.

In California, for example, Asian-Americans are now the new "sleeping giant" what Hispanics were about two decades ago having significantly increased their potential power at the polls, says a report by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center in Los Angeles.

The number of Asian-Americans in California eligible to register to vote climbed by over half a million between 2000 and 2005, from two million to 2.5 million, it said. Their share of the state's potential voter population increased from 10 per cent to 12 per cent during the period.

"Two factors behind the emergence of the new 'sleeping giant' are the overall increase in the total Asian American population and the higher rate of citizenship," the report said.

In the current campaign, there has been "an unprecedented increase in the participation of Asian-Americans across the board in terms of fund raising, actual voters and number of candidates," said Daniel Kohns, spokesman for House of Representatives Asian-American legislator Mike Honda.

Almost one in five US-born Asian-American voters report having donated to a political campaign, larger than many other communities, studies show.

Growth in the Asian-American population has been concentrated in traditional electoral battleground states, and in the vote-rich suburbs of major metropolitan areas, giving the community greater clout, experts say.

"The Asian American political potential may be at a tipping point in this election cycle," Chaudhuri said.

Source: China Daily