Orange County

Note: Does not include all Asian American groups; numbers do not add up to 100%.
Source: Asian Pacific American Legal Center .

9/14/06 Sacramento Bee, p. A4: New faces, but same old voters: State's
diversity grows, but whites account for most going to the polls,
By Aurelio Rojas
    The more the face of California changes, the more the state's electorate stays
the same: older white voters, college graduates and homeowners still account for
the majority of voters, according to a new study.
    Seventy-two percent of likely voters are white, 53 percent are college graduates,
77 percent are homeowners and the majority are age 45 and older, according to
the report by the Public Policy Institute of California.
   That profile does not square with the demographics of a state in which the
majority of the population is nonwhite and under 45 years old, fewer than one in
four adults are college graduates and 57 percent are homeowners.
   "We are a state that continues to experience rapid growth and demographic
change overall in terms of our population, said Mark Baldassare, PPIC's research
director. "But we see less growth in the voter rolls and less change in terms of the
demographics of voters."
   Titled " California 's Exclusive Electorate," the report concluded that if nonvoters
made their views known at the ballot box, state policies would dramatically change.
   For example, a large majority of nonvoters -- 66 percent to 26 percent -- prefer
higher taxes with more services to lower taxes with fewer services, according to
the survey, based on 23,000 interviews between May 2005 and May 2006.
   Baldassare said voter participation is particularly important in California
"because our state brings democracy closer to the people through the initiative
process."
   He said greater voting participation, for example, would improve the chances
of the $3 billion affordable housing bond on the November ballot.
   Voter participation has been decreasing for years. Baldassare said only 8
million of the 15 million registered voters in the state are expected to vote in
November.
   Since 1990, California 's population has increased by 25 percent, but voter
registration has increased by only about 15 percent.
   Only about 56 percent of adults are registered to vote, compared to a high of
65 percent in 1994. And only a third of those who are registered voted in the June
primary, a record low, Baldassare said.
   Immigration accounts, in part, for low voter participation, since registered
voters must be born in the United State or be naturalized citizens.
   One in three adults in California is foreign-born, but people born in the United
States account for nine in 10 frequent voters, according to the study.
   Still, more than half of the 12 million nonvoters in the state are eligible to vote,
Baldassare said. He said the most common reason people give in PPIC surveys
for not voting are "interest and time."
   "Time is one of those flexible things: If people have the interest, they find time
to vote," Baldassare said. "(But) we find that many of our nonvoters don't find the
political process today particularly relevant to their lives."
   Baldassare said one of the most startling findings in the report is that there is
the same number of registered Democrats and Republicans -- about 12 million --
than there were in 1990.
   The growth in registration has been in voters who declined to state their
affiliation.
    "I think the political parties have really failed to seize the day in California and
provide a reason for new voters," Baldassare said. "I think it is a real statement
about people's alienation from the two-party system that we haven't seen any
growth."


9/7/06 The UCLA Asian American Studies Center: The New Sleeping Giant in
California Politics: The Growth of Asian Americans
by  Letisia Marquez
     Los Angeles , CA (September 6, 2006) In the 1980s and 1990s, Hispanics were
considered the sleeping giant in California politics because of their growing numbers.
Asian Americans are now the new sleeping giant and are at a point where Hispanics
were about two decades ago.(1) They have significantly increased their potential power
at the polls in California , according to an analysis conducted by researchers affiliated
with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and with the UC AAPI (Asian American
& Pacific Islander) Policy Initiative. The analysis uses data from the 2005 American
Community Survey (ACS) released on August 15 and 29, 2006 by the U.S. Census
Bureau, along with previously released data from the Census Bureau.(2)
   The number of Asian Americans in California eligible to register to vote (citizens who
are 18 and older) climbed by over a half million between 2000 and 2005, from 2 million
to 2.5 million. The Asian American share of the a proportion of the state's population
eligible to register as voters increased from 10% to 12% during this time 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. Between 2000
and 2005, the number of Asian Americans residing in California s households increased
from 3.8 million to 4.7 million, accounting for 38% of the net gain of 2.2 million persons
in California s population.(3)
   Along with population growth, Asian Americans experienced an increase in their
citizenship rate -- 71% of Asian American adults are U.S. citizens by birth or
naturalization, representing an increase from 67% in 2000.(4) These figures show
that Asian Americans are not an alien population, but a population that has become
fully integrated into American society through citizenship.
   The growth in the potential Asian American electorate over the last five years is a
continuation of a pattern that began in the 1990s. In 1990, there were slightly more than
one million Asian American adult citizens, comprising about 6% of all adult citizens in
the state.(5) If recent trends continue, there will be over 3 million Asian American adults
eligible to register to vote by the end of the decade, making up about 14% of all
Californians eligible to register.
   The growth in the absolute number of Asian Americans and those eligible to become
voters can have political ramifications. California State Assembly Member Judy Chu
states that the overall growth of the Asian American population will open up new
opportunities and challenges:
   "The incredible growth of Asian Americans in California and in the United States
brings as much opportunity as it does challenges. Asian Americans continue to
contribute to the cultural diversity and economic success of this nation, but the growing
population also means that public services and elected representation will need to
grow to accommodate the unique needs of our community."
   Community leaders point to the potential impact on a number of public policy issues.
Vivian Huang, Legislative Advocate of Asian Americans for Civil Rights & Equality,
states, "With increasing population growth, Asian Americans are poised to dramatically
escalate their political representation and power in politics and highlight key issues
important to the community, such as civil rights, immigrant rights, and access to language assistance."
   This opinion is widely shared by other community leaders, including Lisa Hasegawa
(Executive Director of the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community
Development), JD Hokoyama (President & CEO of Leadership Education for Asian
Pacifics, Inc.), and Elena Ong (former member, California Commission for Women).
   According to Professor Don Nakanishi, a political scientist and director of UCLAs
Asian American Studies Center,
   "This growth has contributed to the increasing number of Asian American state and
local elected officials in California and nationwide. The Asian American political
infrastructure of voters, donors, politicians, and community groups has also undergone
remarkable growth and maturation, and will likely have an increasingly significant
impact on state and national politics."
   However, there are still barriers to fully translating the population numbers into voting
power. According to Paul Ong, an economist and professor in UCLAs School of Public
Affairs , The challenge is to convert the growing numbers of Asian American citizens
into voters. Previous research and data for California from the 2002 and 2004
November Current Population Survey show that Asian American citizens are less
likely to register and vote than non-Hispanic whites and African Americans.(6)
(See Table 3.)
   For the upcoming November elections, community activists have focused on voter
registration and voter-turnout drives. David Lee, Executive Director of the Chinese
American Voters Education Committee, notes "Our bilingual voter registration efforts
are yielding record numbers of Asian American voters in the immigrant community.
Thanks to absentee ballots Asian American voter turnout has been growing rapidly."
   Leading Asian American scholars believe that this group can become an effective
voting bloc by formulating a common political agenda both among Asian Americans
and across racial lines. The Asian American population is culturally, linguistically
and economically heterogeneous. Despite these divisions, Professor Yen Le Espiritu,
a sociologist in the department of Ethnic Studies at UC San Diego notes that, history
has shown that Asian Americans can overcome differences to build viable pan-Asian
political coalitions to promote and protect both their individual and their united interests.
Moreover, Professor Michael Omi, professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley,
predicts, different racial and ethnic groups will increasingly see the necessity of
defining areas of common political concern and mobilizing significant voter blocs to
wield political power."
   The UCLA Asian American Studies Center is the nations leading research center
in the field of Asian American Studies and houses a Census Information Center , which
will continue to analyze data from the ACS as they become available.
   The UC AAPI Policy Initiative brings together University of California researchers
and community organizations to conduct research focusing on the policy concerns
of the AAPI community. Attachments: Graphs; Tables; Technical Note; Contact Sheet
    (1) In 1990, Hispanics made up 14% of adult citizens in California . In 2005, Asian
Americans approach that level, with 12% of California s adult citizens.
See Table 2: Percentages of California adults who are eligible to register to vote by
race.
   (2) See technical note.
    (3) The 2005 American Community Survey covered only individuals living in
households, that is, it excluded those living in institutions, college dormitories, and
other group quarters. In California , Asian Americans represented over 13.4% of the
total population in 2005, an increase from 11.8% in 2000. California s population grew
by 2.2 million (33 million to 35.2 million), with the Asian American population growing
by over 850,000 (3.8 million to 4.7 million). Nationally, the Asian American percentage
of the nation's population grew from 4% to 4.8%, an increase of over 3 million Asian
Americans (10.8 million to 13.8 million). The national population increased by over
14 million persons, with Asian Americans accounting for more than 20% of this
national population increase.
   (4) See Graph 1.
    (5) See Graph 2.
   (6) The national statistics for Asian American citizens are very similar, and there
is very little difference in the statistics for U.S. born Asian American citizens and
naturalized Asian Americans.

5/14/05 Pasadena Star News: Asian influence growing at polls: Population 
gains slowly taking hold,
by Cindy Chang, Staff Writer
    It has been more than two decades since immigrants from Taiwan and 
Hong Kong began their massive influx into the San Gabriel Valley. Yet Asians 
have not achieved political power anywhere close to their numerical dominance.
    A smattering of Asians sit on local school boards and city councils. Two of the 
area's representatives in the state assembly are Chinese American.
    But of the eight area cities with majority or near-majority Asian populations, 
only Monterey Park and Walnut have more than one Asian city council member.
    Rosemead , a city with an Asian population of just under 50 percent, elected its 
first Asian-American council member in March. Matthew Lin of San Marino and 
Chi Mui of San Gabriel are the first Asians to occupy the city council dais in those near-majority Asian communities.
    "So many Asians I spoke to when I was campaigning were so happy that they 
might get representation," said Gary Yamauchi, the third-generation Japanese 
American who became Alhambra 's first Asian council member in November. "I 
had a lot of Japanese saying, We're so happy a Japanese American is getting 
in there, starting to get involved in politics.' "
    The reasons for the lag in political representation are many, experts and Asians 
say. Some would-be candidates are too busy trying to establish themselves in a 
new country, or are not confident enough in their English skills, to run for office. 
Those who do run may find it difficult to break into old-boy networks that still 
operate in some cities. Racism is not as prevalent as it once was, but some 
Asian politicians say they still encounter subtle forms of discrimination.
    At the same time, Asian candidates are unable to fully tap into their natural 
base: Asian voter turnout is substantially lower than the group's share of the 
general population.
    But politicians and academic experts say the seeds for change are in place, 
and it is only a matter of time before there are as many Asian faces on local 
diases as there are in local classrooms. Much progress has been made in the 
last decade, with the number of Asian officeholders creeping upward and new 
faces like Yamauchi, Lin and Mui winning breakthrough elections in their cities.
    "(Chinese residents) feel more comfortable with me -- they feel we have a 
connection," Mui said. "I speak Cantonese and some Mandarin, I can read 
and write. They feel more comfortable getting involved."
    The vital structures of minority politics -- Asian networking groups and fund-
raising arms, nonprofits specializing in registering Asian immigrant voters -- are 
already functional, if not fully developed. As more Asians rise to positions of 
power, they will evolve their own systems of patronage, just as their African-
American and Latino predecessors have, political analysts say.
    And as the Asian population continues to grow in both influence and numbers, politicians running for statewide and national office will begin to pay attention to 
the needs of a group that has been labeled a "model minority" but still has 
many members who are limited by poor English skills and are struggling to obtain citizenship and establish themselves financially.
    "For sure, you're going to see a lot more Asian-American elected officials at 
all levels -- the city council, the school board, the assembly, the state senate for 
sure. The only question is how fast the pace will be," said Paul Zee, an immigrant 
from Hong Kong who in the 1990s became the first Asian to serve on the South Pasadena City Council.
    Blueprint for victory
    From the outset of his Alhambra City Council campaign, Yamauchi enlisted 
a cadre of Chinese-American volunteers who were plugged into both the city's 
business establishment and its Chinese-speaking immigrant circles.
    In what was shaping up to be a tooth-and-nail battle between two factions for 
control of the city, Yamauchi was backed by Alhambra 's political establishment. 
But he still needed every vote he could get.
    He was not sure how his Japanese ancestry would play. Unlike most of 
Alhambra 's Asian residents, he was not a Chinese or Vietnamese immigrant and 
could communicate with non-English speakers no better than any other candidate. 
His main opponent, a young Latina attorney, had the backing of a powerful, 
regionwide Latino political machine.
    Yamauchi's strategists mapped out a campaign schedule that included stops 
at nearly every restaurant opening and awards ceremony where the Chinese-
language media would be in attendance. He won endorsements from Asian groups 
like the Chinese American Business Association, emphasizing the need for an 
Asian representative who would have a natural sympathy with immigrant 
constituents.
    " Gary 's got a very good opportunity, because at least he's Asian and he'll get a 
little bit more coverage in the Asian papers," said Stephen Sham, a Yamauchi 
campaign aide who is contemplating his own City Council run in two years.
    Sure enough, Yamauchi's candidacy was featured in publications like Sing Tao 
and the Chinese Daily News, primary sources of information for Alhambra voters 
whose poor English keeps them from accessing the mainstream media.
    But any advantage conferred on Yamauchi by his Asian ancestry was 
diminished by a simple calculus: Many of the city's immigrant voters are not U.S.  
citizens, and many of those who have made it through the lengthy naturalization 
process are not registered to vote.
    In the November 2000 elections, which like 2004 included a presidential 
contest and city council and school board contests, Alhambra 's Asian voters cast 
38 percent of the city's ballots, according to a study of U.S. Census and county 
voting data by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center .
    That constitutes a sizable voting bloc but one that is still much smaller than 
Asian residents' 48.6-percent share of the population.
    Getting immigrants to the polls
    The voting gap begins with citizenship. Only 49 percent of voting-age Asians 
in Los Angeles County are U.S. citizens, according to the APALC study.
    Those who are citizens are registered to vote at rates much lower than the 
population at large. Between 55 and 60 percent of the county's eligible Asians 
are registered to vote, compared with 82 percent of the general population.
    In Alhambra , only about 45 percent of eligible Chinese were registered. In 
Rosemead and El Monte , the figure was about 38 percent for Chinese voters. 
Those Asians who are registered to vote generally turn out at lower rates than 
the rest of the population, though there are exceptions.
    Race-specific data for the 2004 elections is not yet available.
    "They say they're too busy. They're afraid it'll mean jury duty. They say they 
don't speak English or they can't take off from work,"said Sandra Chen, former 
executive director of the Center for Asian Americans United for Self 
Empowerment, or CAUSE, a Pasadena-based group that registers Asian-
American voters.
    Experts cite a variety of reasons for low voting rates among Asians, most 
centered on the immigrant population's continuing adjustment to life in the U.S., 
whether it is poor English, burdensome work schedules or unfamiliarity with 
democratic institutions. The same factors, the experts say, have likely limited the 
pool of qualified Asians running for office.
    Local observers credit CAUSE with registering many new Asian voters and 
guiding them through the voting process. But CAUSE, the only group in the San 
Gabriel Valley that focuses on Asian voters, operates with four full-time employees 
and can only do so much to reach the tens of thousands of Asian citizens who 
remain unregistered.
    Some of the slack is taken up by Asian candidates looking to give themselves 
an edge by narrowing the gap between the population figures and turnout figures. 
Those candidates describe running into the same obstacles as their counterparts 
at CAUSE.
    "It's so labor-intensive, my God. You have to take them by the hand," said 
Joaquin Lim, a Hong Kong immigrant who is in his second term on the Walnut City Council. "If they're newly registered, that doesn't mean they'll vote. You have to call 
them, remind them there's an election coming up."
    While African Americans and Latinos lean heavily Democratic, Asians split 
about evenly between the two major political parties and register Independent at 
a rate twice that of other ethnic groups, according to a study by the Public Policy 
Institute of California.
    In part because of the difficulty of crafting a message for such a diverse 
audience, most candidates for statewide office have done little to reach out to 
Asian voters, even though they constitute 12 percent of the population and 8 
percent of registered voters statewide.
    A community that is already culturally and linguistically diverse is becoming 
even more fragmented as it grows in numerical and political strength, some 
observers say, making it harder for Asian politicians to establish a base.
    "Community leaders often struggle to find common ground between different Asian-American groups. That can mean divisions along ethnic lines, religious 
lines, gender lines or generational lines," said Janelle Wong, a professor of 
political science at USC. "I don't think people realize how difficult it is to bring 
the Asian-American community together to vote as a bloc."
    Becoming one of them'
    With the influence of a core constituency diminished, Asian politicians cannot 
rely exclusively on the Asian vote, even in majority or near-majority Asian cities. 
The need to capture mainstream votes may be one reason why Asian political representation has lagged.
    "With any minority group growing through immigration, you always have a lag. 
There's a chunk not eligible to vote, and the population is a little higher than the 
voting power. Gradually they'll gain power and do it in their own way," said Fred 
Register, a Pasadena-based political consultant who worked on the re-election 
campaign of Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-Pasadena.
    Some Asian candidates run "outsider" campaigns or live in one of the few 
cities where they can afford to draw support mainly from Asian constituents. 
Others, like Yamauchi and Zee of South Pasadena, were supported by mostly 
white establishments -- still the most feasible route to power in many 
jurisdictions. 
    Barriers at community service organizations like the Rotary Club and the 
YMCA, where local politicians traditionally cut their teeth, have fallen, with 
many Asians now serving as board members.
    "In Alhambra you haven't been able to elect an Asian because of the old boys 
-- a small group of old-timers that controls the city. Not one of them is Asian," 
said David Lang, who has worked as a campaign consultant to Chu and 
former Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo and heads the 
Indochinese American Political Action Committee. "To overcome that, there 
are no shortcuts. You have to develop relationships with these people, become 
one of them."
    That is just what Yamauchi did, serving as Rotary Club and Chamber of 
Commerce president before running for City Council with the support of the 
Alhambra business establishment -- a path that would have been unlikely for 
an Asian American a generation ago.
    Sham, the Hong Kong immigrant who helped Yamauchi with his campaign, 
has followed in Yamauchi's footsteps, holding many of the same offices and 
cultivating relationships with both mainstream power brokers and the Chinese 
community as he eyes a City Council run in two years.
    "I'm 60. Guys 50, 60, 70 are truly lucky to be where we're at because of our 
parents opening doors. They went through the bigotry and the discrimination, 
not us," said Yamauchi, who was born in 1944 shortly after his parents were 
released from an internment camp for Japanese Americans in Arkansas .
    We've come eons'
    Even as some old barriers remain and the numbers show that there is still a 
long way to go, the progress made by Asian-American politicians in the last 
decade is tangible.
    While Asians in Alhambra are just getting started, Monterey Park in 2003 
elected a majority Asian City Council for the first time. In a city with an Asian 
population of over 60 percent, residents typically have a long list of Asian-
surnamed candidates to choose from.
    A group called Chinese Elected Officials has about 25 members who 
currently hold office in Southern California and another 10 or so who are 
former officeholders. That's a long way from its beginnings in the 1980s when 
Monterey Park Councilman David Lau and just a handful of others, including 
Judy Chu -- then a Monterey Park councilwoman and now a state 
assemblywoman -- held meetings at a local restaurant.
    Chu, D-Monterey Park , who started her political career during a time 
when white residents were pushing for "English only" signage and an us-
versus-them mentality prevailed, is finishing her third and final term in the 
State Assembly, a beneficiary of a redistricting map that was expressly 
drawn to favor an Asian candidate. There are eight Asian-American 
assemblymembers, up from zero a little over a decade ago.
    The overtly racial issues that marked Chu 's days on the Monterey Park 
City Council have been replaced by more pedestrian concerns like balanced 
budgets and traffic.
    "We've come eons, I think. It's almost like a whole new world today," Chu  
said. "In those days, people said the most insensitive things and did not 
expect the Asian-American community to push back. But today, people are 
more careful to say such things. Today, we also have people in the Asian 
community who are more involved in the political process, so they are there 
to catch things before they get to such a polarized point."
    Just a matter of time?
    All indications point to a continued influx of Asian immigrants into the San 
Gabriel Valley the coming decades. Asians, like Latinos, will have to contend 
with the eternal uphill battle of registering new immigrants to vote. While 
undertaken to some extent by political candidates themselves, the task is 
left mostly to under-funded nonprofit groups like CAUSE.
    But as immigrants who arrived in prior decades put down roots in the 
San Gabriel Valley and a native-born second generation comes of age, the 
Asian political presence is almost certain to grow, local politicians and 
analysts predict. The Asian Pacific American Legal Center and research 
institutions like the UCLA Asian American Studies Center are churning out 
policy papers, and networking groups like Chinese Elected Officials are 
showing neophyte politicians the ropes.
    Lawmakers like Chu are moving beyond the local level and will use both 
their name recognition and their backroom credentials to lay the groundwork 
for successors to be elected.
    "I think that as Asian Americans recognize how important politics is, they'll 
recognize that they have to get involved, that if they want their interests to be 
reflected in politics, that Asian Americans have to be there," said Leland 
Saito, a USC professor and the author of a 1998 book on racial politics in 
Monterey Park .

3/24/05 Los Angeles Times: Nearly Half of Blacks, Latinos Drop Out, 
School Study Shows
by Duke Helfand
    Nearly half of the Latino and African American students who should have 
graduated from California high schools in 2002 failed to complete their 
education, according to a Harvard University report released Wednesday.
    In the Los Angeles Unified School District , the situation was even worse, 
with just 39% of Latinos and 47% of African Americans graduating, 
compared with 67% of whites and 77% of Asians.
    The report concluded that the public remains largely unaware of the true 
extent of the problem because the state uses "misleading and inaccurate" 
methods to report dropout and graduation rates.
    The California Department of Education reported that 87% of students 
graduated in 2002, but researchers pegged the rate at just 71%. Nationally, 
about 68% of students graduate on time, according to the analysis.
    The troubling graduation rates are most alarming in minority communities, 
where students are more likely to attend what researchers call "dropout 
factories."
    The exodus of tens of thousands of students before 12th grade is exacting 
significant social and economic costs through higher unemployment, increased 
crime and billions of dollars in lost revenue, according to the report by 
researchers from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, 
among others.
    "A diploma is a passport to economic success. If our high schools can't get 
students the education they need, that will be an economic and social 
problem moving forward into the next generation," said researcher Christopher 
Swanson of the nonprofit Urban Institute in Washington, which produced data 
for the report released by Harvard's Civil Rights Project.
    Statewide, just 57% of African Americans and 60% of Latinos graduated in 
2002, compared with 78% of whites and 84% of Asians, the report said.
    Using enrollment data, researchers produced what they believe are the 
most definitive graduation rates for California and its largest school systems.
    They cast aside the state's method, which even California Education 
Department officials acknowledge is flawed. The state officials say they are 
forced by the federal government to use a formula that relies on undependable 
dropout data from schools.
    The Harvard report found that African Americans and Latinos in the state 
were far less likely to graduate than their white and Asian peers, reflecting an achievement gap that first appears in elementary schools.
    UCLA researchers noticed one troubling pattern in Los Angeles Unified: 
Most students who leave high school do so between ninth and 10th grades.
    In several Los Angeles high schools, UCLA researcher Julie Mendoza found 
that less than one-third of ninth-graders graduated on time.
    Principals at two of those high schools Jefferson and Manual Arts  
said students leave for a number of reasons but that their schools are taking 
steps to boost graduation rates.
    Jefferson High School Principal Norm Morrow attributed his school's 
graduation rate pegged by UCLA at 31% partly to a transient student 
population and overcrowding that leave little opportunity for personal attention.
    He said that gangs, drugs and students working to support their families also 
figured into high dropout numbers. Jefferson serves large numbers of students 
from immigrant Latino families.
    To retain more students at the South Los Angeles campus, Morrow said, he 
has been working on dividing the school of 3,800 students into smaller learning 
centers.

2/28/05 Los Angeles Times; Commentary: Do Asian Americans Count in L.A. ?
    by Raphael J. Sonenshein, Raphael J. Sonenshein, a political scientist at 
Cal State Fullerton, is the author of "The City at Stake: Secession, Reform, and 
the Battle for Los Angeles " (Princeton University Press, 2004).
    When people talk about the L.A. mayoral race, four voter blocs are almost 
always discussed: African Americans, Latinos, Jews, and Republicans. Yet one 
of the largest groups in the city is rarely mentioned: Asian Americans.
    The 2000 census revealed that Asian Americans represent about 10% of the 
city's population. When it takes as little as 25% of the vote for a mayoral candidate 
to make a runoff, 10% matters.
    Additionally, Asian American voters in California are increasingly showing a 
partisan orientation, moving into the Democratic column. From the late 1990s to 
the present, national and statewide Democratic candidates have been beating Republicans among Asian Americans by a 2-to-1 margin. Even in nonpartisan
L.A. mayoral races, Asian Americans picked favorites, supporting Mike Woo in 
1993 and James K. Hahn in 2001.
    So, if they have the numbers and are showing signs of group voting, why aren't 
they more prominent in the power equations of city politics?
    Citizenship and voting rates among Asian Americans are part of the problem. 
They may represent 10% of the population, but Asian Americans make up only 
around 6% of the city electorate. But that cannot be the whole answer, because 
even a 6% bloc that makes a clear choice in big races should be a factor.
    One reason for their low political profile is that, district by district, Asian 
Americans in Los Angeles lack opportunities to win elective office or to control who 
does win. And yet this is the level where leverage is created and issues that build a constituency get articulated. Los Angeles election districts are simply too big and 
Asian Americans are too scattered to get a foothold.
    There are 15 City Council districts in Los Angeles , each with about 230,000 
residents. Latinos account for a significant share of the population in half a dozen districts; African Americans hold voting majorities in three; Jewish voters are concentrated in several Westside and Valley districts; and Republicans are 
numerous in the northwest and eastern Valley.
    By contrast, Asian Americans are numerous everywhere, but dominant nowhere. 
Even Koreatown has a majority Latino population. And because neighborhoods with 
lots of Asian Americans are divided geographically from each other, they cannot be 
easily combined into one or two council districts. That means Asian American 
candidates are most likely to emerge in heterogeneous districts. Mike Woo was 
elected to the City Council from the old 13th District, including Hollywood , where no 
blocs dominated. Woo had a quality that Asian Americans must cultivate to solidify 
their clout crossover appeal.
    The role of demographic concentration can be seen in comparing Asian American political prospects at the state level with the situation in Los Angeles . There are eight Asian Americans in the state Assembly, five Democrats and three Republicans. Most 
of them represent districts with higher shares of the Asian American population than 
Los Angeles , such as San Francisco , Monterey Park and Garden Grove , and they are more likely to represent suburban than urban areas. Of course, even in these races 
Asian American candidates must build crossover coalitions.
    One way to jump-start Asian American electoral success in L.A. would be to 
create smaller City Council districts or separate boroughs, with their own elected councils, but such ideas may never materialize. More immediately, the city's new neighborhood councils provide leadership opportunities with a real electoral future, 
and these positions could supplement current Asian American civic participation as public employees, community activists and members of city boards and commissions.
    The more Asian Americans who get elected, the more the population will have a political focus. With that may come even more voting and wider citizenship efforts in a reinforcing cycle that can make Asian Americans a major force to be reckoned with in Los Angeles politics.

2/23/05 Los Angeles Times: California Natives Trail in Finishing College: Lower 
rates than for rest of U.S. stem from poor public schools, families' income, study 
says,
By Stuart Silverstein, Times Staff Writer 
    Young adult whites, Asian Americans and Latinos born in California have 
earned bachelor's degrees at moderately lower rates than their counterparts from 
other states, according to a study being released today. 
    The findings indicate weakness in college achievement among native 
Californians that is often overlooked because so many people who move to the 
state hold bachelor's degrees.
    According to the report from the Public Policy Institute of California, even the highest-achieving group it tracked young adult Asian Americans from California  
lagged somewhat in educational performance.
    Based on figures from the 2000 census, the institute found that 67% of young 
adult Asian Americans born in other states had earned bachelor's degrees, 
compared with 62% of those born in California . The young adult category in the 
study consists of those ages 25 through 29.
    Among whites, the bachelor's degree rate was 32% for young adults born in 
other states, compared with 31% for those from California . For Latinos, the rate 
among young adults from other states was 15%, compared with 13% for their counterparts from California .
    Deborah Reed, the study's author, attributed the weaker college achievement 
among California natives to low public spending on preschools and K-12 
education, along with low family incomes and other factors.
    "Ultimately we end up with these differences in who gets a college degree, 
but the problem really starts way back in the beginning, before students go to kindergarten," Reed said.
    However, she noted that so many people moving to the state have graduated 
from college that 30% of all young adult California residents hold bachelor's 
degrees. The overall figure for the 49 other states is 28%.
    Joni Finney of the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy and Higher 
Education in San Jose said the state's heavy reliance on its community colleges 
may also hurt. Students at those two-year schools often face difficulties in 
transferring to four-year colleges, she said.
    Reed acknowledged that some of the "born in California " young adults included 
in her figures undoubtedly left the state as young children. However, she said there 
was no more precise gauge for determining from census figures the bachelor's 
degree attainment of California-educated students.
    To test her findings, Reed looked at young adults born in California and living 
in the state as of 1995. She found that the percentage of bachelor's degree 
recipients in that group was even lower, albeit only slightly.
    Among some demographic groups, there were exceptions to the general 
pattern. For young adult blacks, the percentage earning bachelor's degrees was 
15% around the nation and for the California-born.
    The study also showed that Californians of all racial and ethnic groups, like 
their counterparts across the country, increasingly earned bachelor's degrees in 
the 1990s. Among the California-born, the rate climbed from 21% in 1990 to 25% 
in 2000.
    Nevertheless, the college achievement gap widened between higher-
performing whites and Asians and lower-performing Latinos and blacks.
    The report found that among the California-born, the percentage earning 
bachelor's degrees jumped over the decade from 53% to 62% for Asians, and 
from 23% to 31% for whites. By contrast, the figures rose from 10% to 13% for 
Latinos, and from 11% to 15% for blacks.
    She said a possible reason for the widening gap could be the ban California  
imposed on affirmative action in public college admissions during the 1990s.
    William G. Tierney of USC's Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis noted 
that large numbers of Latinos are concentrated in poor-performing public schools 
in Southern California . He said the inability of urban public schools to prepare 
students for rigorous college courses "is a chronic problem that is moving toward 
a crisis."

2/3/05 San Gabriel Valley Tribune: Asians lacking in areas of report: Health insurance, home buying cited,
by Ivy Dai
    Korean Americans have the lowest percentage of health-insurance coverage in the state, despite a median income on par with Chinese and Japanese residents, according to a report released Thursday on Asian Americans in California .
    Koreans also have the lowest percentage of home ownership, falling below African Americans, Latinos and whites, according to the Asian Pacific American Legal Center report.
   "In contrast to popular opinions that Asians are doing well, the reality is that we're facing many challenges in different areas,' said Kimiko Kelly, an analyst with the center and co-author of the report. "Health-care coverage for the Asian population as a whole is average, but 40 percent of Koreans don't have insurance.'
    Legislators, educators, business representatives and nonprofit groups gathered in Los Angeles on Thursday at the Cathedral Plaza Center for the release of the report analyzing the fastest- growing minority in California .
   Despite the myth that Asians and Pacific Islanders are a "model minority,' the report found they fell below the mark for per capita income, home ownership and college graduates.
   The 4.5 million Asians in California also have a higher percentage of crowded households, with three or more family members working and receiving public assistance.
   The disparities are more sharply evident in Pacific Islanders. Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, Samoan and Tongan residents have the highest poverty rates statewide.
   "I think the biggest issue is to get the Hmong, Cambodian and other Pacific Islander groups together,' Monterey Park Mayor Mike Eng said. "They really need to bring them to the table they lack funding, visibility and nonprofit groups.'
    Monterey Park has the highest Asian concentration in Southern California at 64 percent, and is one of six cities in the San Gabriel Valley with an Asian majority.
    Thirty-nine percent of Asians in the state have limited English proficiency, according to the report.
   The language barrier is the biggest challenge educators, legislators and healthcare officials face in helping the Asian-American community, said the center's Executive Director Stewart Kwoh.
   "People need to be able to communicate, so they can go to hospitals and other places for help. We need to train more people to engage in the community,' Kwoh said. "It's also a two-sided responsibility. More Asian Americans need to get involved.'
   Monterey Park has developed linguistic and cultural outreach programs for new immigrants and seniors, Eng said.
   The Alhambra Unified School District also employs multilingual home school coordinators, said Quoc Tran, the district's English language development coordinator.
   "We have 20,000 students in the district, and about 40 percent have limited- English proficiency,' Tran said. "We have 26 different languages other than English.'
   The report is based on 2000 U.S. Census data, and includes San Francisco Bay Area figures for the first time. The Legal Center plans to release a national report on Asian Americans next year with projections for 2010.

10/2/03 San Gabriel Valley Tribune: "Fewer whites leaving state: 
Latinos, Asians eclipse whites in flight from state,"
    The so- called 'white flight' out of Los Angeles has become a lot less white.
    A report issued today shows that 35 percent of people who moved out of 
the Los Angeles metropolitan region in the late 1990s were white, compared 
with 78 percent a decade earlier.
    The Brookings Institution study highlights the latest evidence in a growing 
trend: immigrants, like other Americans before them, are leaving expensive 
and crowded states like California for better jobs and cheaper housing in 
other locales.
    "It's more of a middle-class flight,' said William Frey, a University of 
Michigan demographer and author of the report, "Metropolitan Magnets for 
International and Domestic Migrants.'
    "What's happening in Los Angeles and a lot of California is an 
affordability issue,' Frey said. "Whites are still leaving, but they're now being 
joined by the multigenerational Hispanic and Asian families.'
    Overall, the study found that about as many people who arrive in Los 
Angeles from other parts of the country also move out mostly to Sun Belt 
areas like Phoenix and Las Vegas.
    Southern California continues to grow rapidly because of high birth rates 
and immigration from abroad, but - compared with other urban centers - 
it also experienced the second-largest loss of population due to people 
moving to other parts of the state or nation.
    The five-county Los Angeles region gained nearly 700,000 immigrants 
between 1995 and 2000, while losing 550,000 residents.
    Breaking it down, for every 14 people who moved to Southern California, 
11 others moved out. Only the New York metropolitan area outranked 
Southern California in net domestic migration losses.
    As an immigrant gateway, Southern California attracted 983,659 
foreigners, while also losing 874,028 people to other states.
    Among the study's other findings:
    The number of people leaving the Los Angeles region has tripled since 
the 1980s, while the number of people leaving San Francisco doubled. 
Demographers said the trend reflects the broader migration out of 
California.
    People moving to Los Angeles and San Francisco are more likely to 
be better educated than those moving to other states. According to the 
study, about 5 percent of the foreign immigrants who came to Los 
Angeles between 1995 and 2000 were college graduates.
    Blake noted that the cities offer more opportunities for specialized 
workers the ones who also can better afford the higher-cost city living.
    Not a single California county ranks among the top 20 places for 
large domestic migration growth. Phoenix, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Dallas 
and Austin, Texas, saw the greatest population gains from domestic 
migration between 1995 and 2000.
    Los Angeles continues to be a magnet for immigrants. About 
699,573 foreigners came to Southern California between 1995 and 
2000 while 549,951 people already in the region left for other states.
    "California will always continue to be No. 1 at attracting immigrants, 
and right there with Los Angeles at the top,' Frey said.

9/24/03 Associated Press: "Asian, Hispanic Immigrants Chasing 
American Dream Changing Face of L.A. County: New Census Figures 
Show Asians Leading Growth in Unexpected Places Nationwide"
    Temple City, CA -- Waves of dream chasers, who have helped 
transform several cities like this one into booming Asian-American 
suburbs, have made Los Angeles County one of the most diverse 
areas in the United States.
    California's most populous county now has the fastest growing 
population of Asians and Hispanics, as well as the largest population 
of American Indians and Alaskan natives found anywhere in the United 
States, according to census figures from 2000 released Thursday.
    The increase in the two years tracked since the last national census 
gave Los Angeles County 1.3 million Asians, 47,000 more than 
reported in 2000, according to the Census Bureau.
    Other parts of California also showed steady increases in their 
Asian populations, according to census officials, although their 
overall numbers do not match those found in Los Angeles County.
    San Diego County's Asian population, for example, increased to 
274,469 from 245,659 in 2000. Alameda County, in the San Francisco 
Bay area, saw its numbers rise from 301,225 to 327,017 during the 
same period. Orange County, with a burgeoning Vietnamese 
population, saw its number of Asians increase from 393,689 to 
422,656.
    In Los Angeles County, the Asian immigration wave, which 
includes Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and other ethnic groups, 
has been building quietly for decades.
    It first gained national attention when Monterey Park, located just 
over a hillside from downtown Los Angeles and not far from that city's 
Chinatown, became America's first Asian-majority city in the 1980s.
    The suburb of about 60,000 people, which was transformed during 
that time from a collection of blue-collar homes to an area known as 
Little Taipei, and later as the Chinese Beverly Hills, is now more than 
60 percent Asian.
    Many then fanned out east across the county's San Gabriel Valley, 
transforming suburbs like Temple City, Rosemead, San Gabriel, 
Alhambra, Diamond Bar and Arcadia into bustling areas of Asian-
American commerce.
    Radio and cable TV stations now carry programs in various Asian 
languages and main streets are lined with Asian-run businesses, 
many hawking Asian-language newspapers.
    ``Asians come here for three reasons,'' said Steve Lee, a Korean-
American who manages the repair shop at a gas station in Arcadia, 
a city of about 53,000 whose Asian population nearly doubled to 
about 45 percent during the previous decade.
    ``There are lots of jobs. You can get a job as a cook or in a cleaners 
here right away. Then you can save and open a small business and 
have a better life,'' he said. ``And the third reason Asian people come 
here is for the schools.''
    Other immigrants cited different reasons for settling and staying in 
Los Angeles County. Among them, the word that Asians are more 
welcome in metropolitan areas like New York and Los Angeles than 
the rest of the country and that, when all else is equal, Los Angeles wins 
out for better weather.

9/18/03 San Jose Mercury News: "Whites no longer majority in region: 
Census Estimate Shows Percentage of Latinos, Asians is on the Rise 
in Greater Bay Area,"
    Whites are no longer the majority in the Greater Bay Area, mirroring 
a widespread shift that has already taken place statewide and in some 
local counties, according to census estimates released today.
    Whites slipped from 51 percent to 49 percent of the region's population 
from July 2000 to July 2002, as a result of foreign immigration and the 
high birthrates among some ethnic groups. In contrast, the percentage 
of Asians and Latinos each rose from 20 to 21 percent, while the 
African-American population remained at 8 percent.
    ``It's a milestone that has big implications in some areas like providing 
police services in different languages, but few immediate implications for 
some things like political power,'' said Hans Johnson, the demographer 
for the Public Policy Institute of California, a San Francisco-based think 
tank.
    While the cultural and political influence of Asians and Latinos is 
growing, whites continue to retain a disproportionate amount of political 
power statewide. That's in large part, Johnson said, because more 
whites are citizens and registered to vote.
    In Santa Clara County, which became a plurality in 1999, the white 
share of the population continued to drop, to 42 percent in 2002. The 
county now has about 1.7 million people, 29 percent of whom are Asian, 
25 percent Latino and 3 percent black.
    ``The changing demographics of the 10-county region is a positive 
force for the economy, the arts and politics,'' said Richard Hobbs, Santa 
Clara County's citizenship director. ``In 1996, about one-quarter of all 
high-tech companies in Silicon Valley were founded by an immigrant, 
and those companies contributed $28 billion in revenue and 67,000 in 
jobs.''
    The shift is not universal in the 10-county region, which includes 
about 7.1 million people who live in Santa Cruz County and the nine 
counties that touch the San Francisco Bay. Half of the counties still have 
a majority of white residents, including Contra Costa and Marin 
counties. Alameda County has the lowest proportion of whites -- 
40 percent.
    According to the census estimates, Solano County has the biggest 
percentage of blacks -- 16 percent -- in the Bay Area, followed by 
Alameda County, with 15 percent. San Francisco, long a destination 
for immigrants, continues to have the largest proportion of Asians -- 
34 percent. Agricultural Santa Cruz County, meanwhile, has the highest 
share of Latinos -- 28 percent.

9/8/03 Los Angeles Times: "Candidates Skirt Immigration Issue: Growth 
in the numbers and voting clout of the foreign-born, especially Latinos 
and Asians, has altered the tone of political debate,"
By Teresa Watanabe, LA Times Staff Writer
    Nine years ago, California politics featured a raging debate over 
excluding illegal immigrants from public schools and hospitals. Today, 
the divisive question is whether to give them driver's licenses.
    The gap between the two issues underlines a central fact of the state's 
politics: Immigration and its consequences remain topics of intense 
debate, but the ground has moved.
    The shift illustrates how sweeping demographic changes have altered 
the state and its politics: immigrants, mostly Latino and Asian, now 
comprise more than a quarter of California's population, the highest 
proportion in the nation and up substantially from a decade earlier.
    Latinos and Asians differ about the proper mix of policies toward 
immigration - both legal and illegal. But the increased number of 
immigrants in the population, and even more so the increased number 
who have registered to vote, has had a strong impact on the state's 
political figures.
    "Politicians of both parties are terrified of this issue for fear of 
alienating the Latino community," said Kevin Spillane, a Republican 
political consultant in Sacramento. "It's not politically correct to talk 
about illegal immigration."
    Those who advocate more restrictive policies say the majority 
continues to support their side of the debate - a contention backed by 
at least some polling data - but they concede that politicians of both 
parties now consider the issue a loser.
    "What has changed is that both political parties have decided that 
they simply will not discuss the issue and will go along with extending all 
kinds of benefits to illegal aliens, despite the fact that the state has no 
money," said Ira Mehlman, Los Angeles spokesman for the Federation 
for American Immigration Reform.
    Indeed, while Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he opposes the bill 
to give driver's licenses to some 2 million illegal immigrants, which Gov. 
Gray Davis signed into law Friday, the Republican candidate has not 
emphasized the issue. Instead, he plays up his immigrant background.
    His reticence stands in sharp contrast to the actions of former 
Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, who in 1994 made support for Proposition 
187 - the measure to cut off most public services to illegal immigrants - 
a major focus of his campaign for reelection.
    Demographic trends of the last decade help explain the political 
queasiness. In the last decade, more than a million non-Latino whites 
moved out of California, according to a study of Census data by Hans 
Johnson, a demographer with the San Francisco-based Public Policy 
Institute of California.
    At the same time, the population of Latino and Asian immigrants and 
their children grew rapidly. California's Latino numbers, which doubled 
between 1980 and 2000, now stand at 11 million people, or 32.4% of the 
population. The number of Asians also doubled, to 3.6 million people, or 
10.8% of the total.
    Those trends are expected to intensify in the future: More than two-thirds 
of Californians older than 65 are non-Latino whites, while more than half 
of those younger than 18 are Latino and Asian, according to William Frey, 
a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
    "The message going out is, if you want to be left out of the future, attack 
immigrants," said Gabriel Buelna, an immigrant-rights advocate in East 
Los Angeles.
    Public concern about illegal immigration has not disappeared. 
Nationwide, the proportion of people who said controlling illegal immigration 
was a "very important" foreign policy goal has remained high: 72% in 1994 
and 70% in 2002, according to data gathered by the Roper Center for Public 
Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut.
    Moreover, the Sept. 11terrorist attacks helped reawaken efforts to control 
illegal immigration and, for a time, sidetracked proposals like the driver's 
license measure. Last year, Davis vetoed a similar bill, citing the post-Sept. 
11 fears of terrorism. At the time, a Times poll showed voters supporting the 
veto by a 2-1 margin.
    But at least in California, the debate over illegal immigration appears to 
have lost some of its intensity. In 1994, a Times poll showed Californians 
ranking illegal immigration as the third most important issue facing the state 
after crime and unemployment; a Times poll this year showed illegal 
immigration ranking ninth.
    "People really got out of that feverish pitch," said Buelna, executive director 
of Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission, a nonprofit organization that provides 
social services to residents of East Los Angeles.
    "Now, they may think it, but there's no vehicle for them to act on it."
    The issue still stirs passions, however.
    In Monrovia's Old Town over the weekend, retired engineer Joel Zneimer, 
76, declared himself "totally against" the new driver's license law. He also 
backed restrictions on public services for illegal immigrants.
    "Why should you give benefits to people who have broken the law?" 
Zneimer asked as he ate ice cream with a friend. "I pay enough taxes without 
having to support half of Mexico."
    Down the Pasadena Freeway at Alhambra Park, where Latino families 
picnicked with carne asada and mariachi music, Xavier Flores, a loan 
executive in Los Angeles, said he supported the driver's license law and 
resented those who blamed Latinos for the state's problems with illegal 
immigration.
    "Anytime a knucklehead says, 'Send 'em back to Mexico,' I say: 'This is 
Mexico!' " said Flores, a sixth-generation American of Mexican descent. His 
ancestors arrived in the Southwest before the United States conquered what 
was then Mexican territory, he said, asking, "Why doesn't anyone ever say, 
'Send 'em back to Canada?' It's racist."
    But both Flores and his neighbor, Gabriel Gomez, said they also supported 
curbs on illegal immigration. Gomez, a Los Angeles plumber and third-
generation Mexican American, said his business has suffered from the cut-
rate competition of illegal immigrants.
    "When you get illegals doing the job at half the price, you can't compete," 
Gomez said, adding that if their numbers were reduced, "it would give 
opportunities for those of us who really deserve them."
    In addition to the state's demographic shifts, several other differences help 
account for the changed political mood, analysts say.
    A decade ago, Californians faced their worst recession since the Great 
Depression, fanning resentment toward illegal immigrants who were 
perceived as low-cost labor competition. Today's economic downturn is less 
severe and centered more on parts of the economy not regarded as havens 
for illegal immigrants, such as high-tech, according to Johnson.
    Georges Vernez of the Rand Corp. in Santa Monica speculated that 
immigration reform had lost some steam because of the court decisions that 
invalidated most of Proposition 187.
    The 1996 federal welfare reform law also "quieted the resentment of 
taking away services from the native-born," Vernez said.
    So did successful California initiatives to eliminate bilingual education 
and affirmation action, other analysts said.
    But the biggest factor, many say, is a new political reluctance to take on 
the issue of illegal immigration.
    When Proposition 187 came to the fore, some Republican strategists 
opposed it, arguing that it would spark a backlash from the state's growing 
numbers of Latino and immigrant voters.
    In the years since, the proposition, along with moves by Congress to 
restrict the welfare benefits that legal immigrants could obtain, became 
rallying points that helped increase the political participation of both Latinos 
and Asians.
    From 1994 to 2000, nearly half a million Mexican immigrants became 
U.S. citizens, and about that many during the same rough period registered 
to vote, according to Rosalind Gold of the National Assn. of Latino Elected 
and Appointed Officials.
    "These were voters with a mission: They wanted to send a message that 
they would fight discrimination against immigrants, and that they would hold 
Republicans responsible for the tone and tenor of the discussions in 
California about immigration," Gold said.
    Increased numbers of immigrant voters were not the only factor that 
helped turn California into a state politically dominated by Democrats.
    Republicans repeatedly have nominated candidates who are more 
conservative than the majority of state voters.
    Most analysts agree, however, that the perception of Republicans being 
anti-immigrant - a charge that Wilson and his supporters have steadily 
denied - took a toll.
    Democrats, who lost control of the Assembly in 1994, regained it in 
1996 and recaptured the governor's office in 1998.
    From 1996 to 2000, Republican Assembly seats dropped from 41 to 
30 as candidates lost in virtually every district with more than 15% Latino 
voter registration, said Allan Hoffenblum, a GOP political consultant who 
opposed Proposition 187. The key exceptions were Latino Republican 
candidates, he said.
    "You had a major political party in power 10 years ago that has been 
marginalized in part because of losing the vote of Latinos and what is the 
largest group of new [voter] registrants: immigrants of all backgrounds," 
Hoffenblum said.
    "Now people are so shellshocked that it's difficult to even discuss this 
issue."

12/5/02 San Diego Union Tribune: "By 2040, whites may still 
remain in voter control: New analysis cites low minority rates"
    Minority voting rates in California are so low that even by 2040, when 
nonwhites will be two-thirds of the state's population, whites could still 
represent a majority of voters, according to a new analysis of ballot box 
trends.
    The analysis reinforces past findings that black and Hispanic voter 
rates are stunted by lower socioeconomic status and citizenship rates - 
but participation among Asians, who tend to be relatively well-off, is 
surprisingly low.
    If trends hold - and they may not - white voters in California will wield 
disproportionate control over the political process, according to the 
study released today by the Public Policy Institute of California.
    This "electoral gap" is of lasting consequence for everything from 
social policy to spending priorities.
    While the white proportion of the population falls steadily, they are 
keeping a healthy share of the electorate.
    Non-Hispanic whites were 51% of California's voting-age population 
in 2000, but were 70% of those who said they voted, according to the 
Census Bureau.
    A decade earlier, whites were 63% of the over-18 population and 
80% of those who said they voted, according to the study.
    Study authors Benjamin Highton, a political science professor at the 
University of California Davis, and UC Berkeley professor Jack Citrin 
wrote that if participation and citizenship rates hold steady, by 2040 
whites will make up about 31% of the population, but about 53% of 
voters; Hispanics will make up 48% of the population, but 26% of voters; 
Asians, 16% of the population, but 12% of voters; and blacks, 6% of the 
population, but 8% of voters.
    To gauge more accurately each group's tendency to participate, the 
study leveled both socioeconomic and citizenship differences among 
the groups.
    All else being equal, whites, blacks and Hispanics vote at about the 
same rates - but Asians are significantly less inclined to participate.
    Citrin said there's no one explanation for the "Asian anomaly."
    Among the possibilities: unlike blacks and Latinos, Asians haven't 
had one issue galvanize them into mass participation; they're a diverse 
group that is hard to rally with one voice; generally well-off, they may 
depend less on the government and thus perceive they have a lesser 
stake in who governs; and there may be lingering cultural barriers to 
citizen participation.

Nov. 29-Dec. 5, 2002 AsianWeek.com: "Exit Polls Show APA Dems and 
GOPs Equal in Southern California,"
    The number of Asian Pacific Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area 
and Southern California who identified themselves as Democrats increased 
this election year, according to preliminary results from exit polls.
    A poll conducted by the Southern California-based Asian Pacific 
American Legal Center (APALC) found that APA voters supported 
candidates based on their experience and stance on issues that affected 
them locally, such as education and the economy, rather than party affiliation 
or race.
    Dan Ichinose, project director for the Demographic Research Unit at 
APALC, said that APA voters were more like blacks and Latinos than 
whites in reporting that a andidate's stance on health care and civil rights 
played a significant role in their decision to support that candidate.
    In Los Angeles County, 47.3% of APAs affiliated themselves with the 
Democratic Party, compared to 31.4% with the Republican Party, 
according to the APALC poll. In Orange County, a difference of less than 
one percent separated those that affiliated with the two parties.
    In a poll conducted by the Chinese American Voter Education 
Committee (CAVEC), 46% of the Chinese surveyed in San Francisco said 
they were registered Democrats opposed to 7% being Republican and 45% 
being Independent.
    The APA populations of Los Angeles County and Orange County 
represent around 14% of the national APA population.
    According to the Los Angeles Times exit poll, about 6% of voters 
surveyed statewide were APA. Ichinose said if those 6% actually went out 
and voted, then more than 450,000 APAs voted on November 5. However, 
that is a decline from the 8% surveyed in November 1998. While turnout 
among voters statewide fell from 58% in 1998 to 48% in 2002, Ichinose 
said that decline disproportionately occurred among voters from minority 
communities, including APAs.
    "Sixty-four percent of voters in November 1998 were white, compared with 
76% this November," he said. "This could suggest that minority voters, 
including APAs, were more likely than whites to be turned off by candidates 
in this year's governor's race and simply chose not to vote."
    APALC has conducted poll monitoring and administers the largest and 
most comprehensive exit polls of APA voters in Southern California. It uses 
the findings to improve bilingual services to APA voters, in accordance with 
the federal requirements of the Voting Rights Act.

8/28/02 Contra Costa Times : "Non-white electorate holds clout: However, the 
growing ethnic groups have yet to solidify political muscle"
    From 1992 to 2000, the Latino and Asian portion of the electorate grew from 
14% to 20%, while the white share shrank from 79% to 71%. The black portion 
inched up from 6% to 7%.
    In response, the state's major political parties have sent their top candidates 
on missions to better connect with immigrant communities.
    Polls indicate 71% of Asians and 78% of Latinos said immigrants benefited 
the state compared to 47% of whites and 55% of blacks giving the same answer.
    Asian voters in the East Bay care most about immigration, government aid 
for seniors and civil rights issues such as racial profiling, said Albert Wang, 
director of the East Bay Asian Voter Education Consortium.
    Despite the formidable size of the Asian and Latino population -- they 
comprise 43% of the state -- their voter participation rates are abysmal. Only 
about 15% of that population voted in 2000, compared to more than half of 
whites.
    In the last presidential election, Asians just about evenly split their votes 
between Gore and Bush.

5/9/02 Washington Times: "GOP finds party a tough sell to minorities,"
    Although Asians went by a 55-31 percent margin for the elder George Bush 
in 1992 and by 48-43 percent for Bob Dole over Bill Clinton in 1996, they 
reversed party allegiance in 2000, voting 54-41 percent for Mr. Gore over Mr. 
Bush.
    "Republicans are at their nadir with Asians," Gary South, chief strategist for Democratic Gov. Gray Davis of California, told The Washington Times.
    Asians are the second-fastest growing segment of the electorate after 
Hispanics. Yet, as Mr. South noted, "Democrats now have a 65-35 percent 
split with [Asian voters], not in registration but in voting behavior. In 1992, they 
were registered 4-1 Republican. Right now, that constituency is half Democrat 
and half Republican" in California.

4/8/2002 San Francisco Examiner: "Asians gear up for redistricting,"
By Nick Driver
    The City's redistricting deadline is April 15.
    Estimated as high as 40% of San Francisco's population, Asian voting power 
has been slowly changing neighborhoods across San Francisco, from District 
11's Crocker Amazon to District 7's Golden Gate Heights.
    Though the U.S. Census Bureau says officially that Asian residents make up 
32.5% of the population, some demographers -- as well as independent 
researchers with the California Department of Finance -- believe the numbers are 
much higher.
    One of the main mandates for the nine-person Redistricting Task Force is to 
keep minority communities together.
    One of the jobs will be to channel the rising demographic and political power of 
growing Asian population so it can potentially elect more Asian supervisors, all 
without slighting other minority groups, such as African Americans and Latinos.
    A broad group of minorities has come together and put aside their differences.
    They have put forward a proposal that keeps District 10 -- including both 
Potrero Hill and Bayview -- as a safe African-American seat, now occupied by 
Sophi Maxwell, and it has unified the Mission in District 9, to better elect a Latino 
or Latina once Tom Ammiano is termed out.
    For the Asian Law Caucus and Chinese for Affirmative Action, both members 
of the coalition, the incentive is to move Russian Hill out of District 3, making it 
more Chinese.
    David Lee, executive director of the Chinese American Voter Education 
Committee, is much more focused on what Chinese want, not what the broader 
ethnic coalition has compromised on. And the changing demographics have 
enabled him and his Chinese voter activists at the committee to make their 
dreams come through.
    Lee's dream? To capture seats not just in the Richmond, Sunset and 
Chinatown districts, but to expand their base to high-growth areas such as 
Visitacion Valley and the Oceanview-Merced Heights-Ingleside neighborhoods 
in the southern part of The City.
    Competing minority interests want to move the mountain redoubts of Potrero 
Hill, Russian Hill and Golden Gate Heights into or out of districts with a growing 
Asian presence.
    Golden Gate Heights is part of the central Sunset that now sits in Tony Hall's 
District 7. Once mostly white, some of the precincts are 75% or more Asian, and 
include three of the most prominent Asian women in The City: Judges Lillian Sing 
and Julie Tang, and assessor candidate Mabel Teng. Their inclination is to move 
into the Asian-dominated District 4.
    Potrero Hill, now in Maxwell's District 10, still has a majority white population in 
most precincts. Lee's CAVEC wants Potrero Hill stripped out and placed in Chris 
Daly's District 6, so it can move part of the growing Asian population into District 
10 and help elect an Asian.
    But a coalition of African-American, Asian and Latino activists wants to keep 
Potrero Hill in District 10 to increase the chances of a black safe seat for the next 
decade.
    Mostly white Russian Hill residents, now split between Districts 2 and 3, want to 
unify in Gavin Newsom's District 2, a notion shared by Lee and CAVEC. But 
District 3's Aaron Peskin wants the Russian Hillers to stay with him and help him 
win re-election in 2004.
    In the long run Asians are changing the face of San Francisco, and translating 
it into greater Asian political power.
    E-mail Nick Driver at ndriver@sfexaminer.com

2/28/02 Contra Costa Times: "Candidates looking to minorities:
Although the state's immigrants do not make up a majority of the vote, they
do have influence,
    Asians made up 6% of the electorate in 2000, yet made up 11% of California's population.
    Latinos constituted just 14% of the electorate in 2000, while accounting for 
a third of the state's population, according to the Field Poll.
    Altogether, nonwhite residents were 53% of the state's population.
    Voter participation rates within ethnic groups are abysmal, newly released 
census numbers show.
    In 2000, only about a quarter of Asian and Latino adults statewide cast a
vote, compared to about half of all adults in the state.
    The immigrant vote is growing, but slowly.
    The Asian portion of the electorate grew from 4% to 6% from 1990 to 2000, 
according to the Field Poll.
    42% of Asian-Americans are registered as Democrats and 36% as 
Republicans.
    That mirrors the linguistic and cultural divisions among Asian-Americans.  
Asians also are dispersed more widely across the state, diluting their voting 
power in any particular district.
    One consequence of those divisions could be the lack of Asians serving in
the state Legislature, where they make up 2.5% of the body, while Asians 
constitute 10.8% of the state population.
    In 1990, Latinos made up 11% of the electorate, a figure that grew 3
percentage points during the following decade, a recent Field Poll found.
The percentage of Latinos in the total state population rose from 26% to 32% 
from 1990 to 2000, census numbers show.
    Field Poll numbers show that Latinos statewide are not just an average block
of 1.5 million voters but a block that claims 60% Democratic registration. Only 
21% of Latinos are registered as Republicans. about the same percentage as 
those registered for a minor party or as independents.
    Latinos make up nearly a quarter of the Legislature and 32% of the state.
    Only African-Americans are more united, with 78% registered Democrats, 
a trend that has held for decades.
    Statewide, 63% of Asian adults and about half of Latino adults are citizens, 
census figures show.
    Immigrant communities also suffer from the endemic political problem of
voter apathy.
    Census data show voter registration rates among naturalized immigrants fall
well below those of the total population, about 54% of eligible Asians and Latinos compared with 66% for all eligible adults.

10/11/01 San Francisco Chronicle: "Asians lose a voice in new districts:
Reapportionment divides and conquers," by columnist Mark Simon
   This time, it was Asian voters who got stiffed by reapportionment. That is
to say, voters of Asian descent, or Pacific Islanders, or anyone from any place
west of here.
   But reapportionment -- the redrawing of legislative district lines every 10
years after the census discloses changes in population -- is truly the baldest of
efforts to keep power in the hands of those who already have it at the expense of
anyone or any group of people who might really deserve it.
   And that's just what happened to Asian voters. They got stiffed, particularly
here in the Bay Area.
   In order to protect the current political establishment of San Francisco, and,
not coincidentally, of Santa Clara County, Asian populations were divided up so
that their impact would be diluted.
   Reapportionment often ends up being about race, but it's not all about race.
   Unless we're part of a group of political leaders whose main concern is
divide and dominate, all of us get stiffed.
   The answer to getting stiffed is a political one -- we simply have to do our
own politics better than they do theirs. That means we have to understand our
own commonality of interests and how that can lead to political clout.
   Reapportionment is fraught with examples of divide and dominate.
   But what happened with the Bay Area Assembly districts is a good example.
   San Francisco, which has an Asian population of 31%, is divided between two
newly redrawn districts -- the 12th and the 13th.
   The 13th Assembly District, located entirely within the city, is only 23% Asian.
   The 12th Assembly District, which takes in the western half of San Francisco
and half of Daly City, is 42% Asian.
   The number of Asians in the 12th is boosted significantly by the inclusion of
half of Daly City, which is itself 50% Asian.
   By dividing San Francisco and Daly City, the new districts dilute the influence
of Asian voters in San Francisco.
   At the same time, the Daly City residents of the 12th District are nearly
disenfranchised politically. The person who represents the district is likely to
come from San Francisco and concern himself or herself exclusively with
San Francisco issues, personalities and problems, leaving Daly City residents
on the outs.
   Divide and dominate.
   As I said, reapportionment often ends up being about race, but all of us get
stiffed.
   The 2000 Census puts San Francisco's population at 776,000, while San Mateo
County's is 707,000.
Each of the state's 80 Assembly districts should have about 423,000 people.
   Yet, San Francisco ended up as the dominant portion of two Assembly districts,
at the expense of San Mateo County. Meanwhile, San Mateo County is the
dominant portion of only one Assembly district, the 19th.
   Through reapportionment, San Francisco was allowed to cling to its own
political importance in a region that is rapidly overshadowing what was once
the dominant city.
   It will be an interesting day when San Mateo County surpasses San Francisco
in population.
   That's already happened in Santa Clara County, where the population is 1.6
million. All or a major portion of six Assembly districts are located in Santa Clara
County.
   That raises the question of why Santa Clara County fails to have more clout
in the Assembly than San Francisco.
   The answer is a political one.
   The fact is that San Francisco is a Bay Area anomaly -- a dense, urban center,
surrounded by suburban areas that have become regions in their own right. They
are regions with their own economies, their own social structures and their own
political concerns.
   Daly City has more in common with San Jose than it does with San Francisco.
San Mateo County has more in common with Santa Clara County.
   The communities from Daly City to San Jose have a commonality of interests - -
similar concerns about housing, traffic, schools, and the increasing dominance of
the high-tech economy.
   Those interests transcend traditional politics as exemplified by
reapportionment.
   Those interests also transcend traditional Bay Area politics that have San
Francisco at the center.
   Here's where we have to do politics better.
   The Peninsula and the South Bay should start seeing themselves as a singular
political entity.
   Combine San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and you have a population of
2.3 million, and eight or nine Assembly seats -- more than enough to draw some
clout in Sacramento and to override the puny two seats San Francisco managed
to wring out of the new census data.
   The same can be done anywhere in the Bay Area by defining large political
communities of interest that have in common the same economic and social
concerns.
   It's time we stopped letting reapportionment define our politics for us. It's time
our politics were smart enough to reflect what we've become.
   Mark Simon can be reached at (650) 299-8071, by fax at (650) 299-9208, or
e-mail at msimon@sfchronicle.com. Write him c/o The Chronicle, Press Room,
400 County Center, Redwood City, CA 94063.

9/12/01 Los Angeles Times: "Asian Americans Flex Growing Political Muscle:
Once a negligible force, the group's clout has grown with election wins in the
state and nation"
   Enough shovels of earth--a mountain.
   Enough pails of water--a river.
   That Chinese proverb as much as anything explains the growing political
empowerment of Asian Americans across California and particularly in the San
Gabriel Valley. Election by election, and without fanfare, the ranks of Asian
American elected officials statewide have swelled from 106 in 1980 to 503 in
1998. That figure, compiled by the Public Policy Institute of California and the
most recent available, does not include some recent gains. Two longtime San
Gabriel Valley city councilwomen have joined the Assembly: Carol Liu of La
Canada Flintridge, elected in November, and Judy Chu of Monterey Park, who
took office this summer.
   With two other Asian American Democrats in the Assembly--Wilma Chan of
Oakland and George Nakano of Torrance--they form the Legislature's largest
Asian American caucus ever. It may be only four members strong, but the
Capitol's black caucus has only seven. In fact, the institute found that Asian
American officeholders outnumber African American officials in California by
2 to 1.
   It's been a gradual progression, driven by demographics, multiethnic coalition
politics and the changing attitudes of Asian Americans and others toward
electing people of Asian descent.
   "Ten or 15 years ago, a meeting of Asian American elected officials could
have been held around the kitchen table. Now we're talking a small banquet hall,"
said Joaquin Lim, a city councilman in Walnut. Lim heads the 33-member
organization of Chinese American Elected Officials, which includes current and
former officeholders and trains potential candidates.
   The San Gabriel Valley--a 300-square-mile "ethnoburbia" east of Los Angeles
with 29 cities and about 1.7 million people--has proved to be fertile ground for
ethnic politics before. Inside its city halls and on its school boards, Latinos
showed they could flex their political muscle a decade ago.
   The number of city council and school board members and other elected
officials of Asian descent in the valley has climbed in a decade from six to 17.
There have been as many as 20, but three stepped down to seek even higher
office.
   "What we're seeing in the San Gabriel Valley reflects a larger trend of Asian
Americans becoming more involved in politics," said Don T. Nakanishi, head of
the Asian-American Studies Center at UCLA. And even if they aren't winning,
more Asian Americans are getting their names on the ballot.
   "The number of Asian American candidates is exploding," said David Lang, a
political consultant. "Chinese Americans running for office used to be news in the
San Gabriel Valley. Now we're talking 10 to 15 candidates every election cycle."
   At a candidates forum in Monterey Park on Aug. 31, five of seven council
contenders were Asian American.
   "When I was A little girl, my mother told me those who are fortunate should
contribute to the community," candidate Lisa Yang told the crowd.
   Packing the council chambers for the event was a virtual who's who of Asian
American politics, including West Covina Mayor Benjamin Wong, Monterey Park
Councilman David T. Lau and state Board of Equalization member John Chiang.
   Hosting the event was a growing collection of Asian American political
organizations, including the Chinese-American Elected Officials, the Indo-
Chinese American Political Action Committee and CAUSE/Vision 21.
   CAUSE/Vision 21, created by the merger last year of two Asian American
political groups, was formed to register voters and help train Asian American
candidates. The Chinese Americans United for Self-Empowerment, founded
in 1993 and known as CAUSE, teamed with Vision 21, founded in 1998. With
an eye toward the future, they arrange internships in Sacramento for young Asian
Americans.
   In July, more than 250 people attended a CAUSE/Vision 21 political meeting
in Alhambra, including Secretary of State Bill Jones and Matt Fong, a former
state treasurer.
   The number of Asian American officeholders remains small: 6% statewide.
The number of Asian Americans among registered voters in California has
climbed to 6%--up from 3% a decade ago--but is still the lowest rate of any
ethnic group. But once registered, they are frequent voters and they have logged
successes at the polls.
   San Francisco's Chinese community, which dates to the Gold Rush, has held
as many as three county supervisorial seats there. Elsewhere in the Bay Area,
Oakland has two Chinese American City Council members, as well as
Assemblywoman Chan. And San Jose is home to Rep. Mike Honda. Pockets of
Asian American electoral power can be found in Cerritos, where those of Asian
descent are the majority, and Gardena, where four of five City Council members
are of Asian decent.
   Nationwide, the number of elected and appointed officials in the Asian Pacific
American political roster is 2,200, up from 700 two decades ago.
   Population growth is helping to fuel some of these gains. Asian Americans
account for 13% of California's population and are the state's fastest-growing
minority group. It is a population that has doubled every decade since
immigration restrictions were eased in 1965.
   Nowhere is this growth more evident than in the San Gabriel Valley, where
Asians outnumber all others in Monterey Park, Rowland Heights and Walnut.
   But political growth has taken more than bodies, it has required Asian
Americans and others to change their minds about electing those of Asian
descent.
   Some Say Asians Don't Vote
   The cost of noninvolvement has been high, said Paul Zee, 50, a former South
Pasadena mayor and a recent Republican state Senate candidate.
   "I overheard two politicians talking. One said, 'But what about the Asian
response?' The other guy just looked at him and said, 'I don't have to worry about
the Asian response, do I? They don't vote,' " Zee said.
   The treatment of Taiwan-born scientist Wen Ho Lee, who became entangled
in allegations of passing nuclear secrets to China, underscored the need for
activism, said Marian Tse, a former member of the State Board of Education.
   Much as Proposition 187 galvanized the Latino community in 1994, Lee's legal
battle drew slices of America's diverse Chinese American population into politics
that had long ignored it, she said.
   Lee's experience resonated so deeply, said Tse, because he was portrayed
as a foreigner--a familiar stereotype. The Lee case echoed the controversy over
political contributions by Asian Americans during the Clinton administration. The
Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights became a symbol of the controversy after
Vice President Al Gore attended a fund-raiser there in 1996.
   "Now is time for politics," said Tse, a Taiwan-born Monterey Park resident.
"New immigrants initially had to take care of the family, their business. Now they
are looking to contribute to the community."
   In Zee's view, the rise of Latino politicians serves as a model for Asian
Americans.
   "We need a machine like the one Richard Polanco built for Latinos in Southern
California," he said. Assemblyman Polanco (D-Los Angeles) spent years
cultivating candidates and positioning Latinos to run outside traditional Latino
strongholds. Thanks partly to openings created by term limits, Latinos now hold
20 seats in the Assembly, contrasting with just four in 1991.
   Latinos also made gains through redistricting and, for the first time, Asians are
playing a serious role in California's redistricting debate. Last week, Asian
leaders testifying in Sacramento demanded that the Legislature abandon a
redistricting plan that they said would undermine growing Asian American
political strength.
   And the new Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans for Fair Redistricting is
lobbying for Assembly districts that could help elect Asian Americans in as many
as 10 seats.
   "Asian Pacific Islanders wouldn't be in the majority but a plurality that, together
with other groups, could form coalitions," said Kathay Feng, an attorney for the
Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California. "Judy Chu in the
49th District and George Nakano in Torrance were elected this way."
   "You have to be a candidate for all the people," said Chu, a 13-year Monterey
Park councilwoman whose Assembly district is a cultural mix, with nearly half the
population Latino and more than a quarter Asian. For Chu and others, one key is
to campaign on quality-of-life issues, such as promoting parks or opposing
billboards.
   In April, Annie Yuen became the first minority person elected to the school
board in Arcadia, ousting a four-term incumbent. Yuen built a reputation as a
parent activist, helping create Mandarin-language parenting classes but also
leading that most American of institutions--the PTA.
   Some Resented the Asian Influx
   "People now look beyond skin color," said Arcadia Councilman Sheng Chang,
the city's first elected Asian American. "A few years ago they didn't."
   Still, the influx of people of Asian descent into the San Gabriel Valley has
tested the attitudes of some non-Asians.
   A decade ago, Walnut had a fledgling Anglo-American Assn., created in
response to the growing Asian presence. Today, two council members are Asian
Americans.
   "People used to say an Asian couldn't get elected in Walnut," said Councilman
Lim. "Well, I smashed that glass ceiling and the glass is cracking everywhere
these days."
   In that respect, the San Gabriel Valley, with its multiracial quilt of residents,
might be ahead of the country, analysts say. A nationwide survey this year found
that although Americans admire many qualities of Chinese Americans, one in
four held negative attitudes toward those of Chinese ancestry and a third
questioned their loyalty to the country.
   Issues still exist. The Asian Pacific American Legal Center alleges that, during
the presidential election in November, some poll workers in San Marino often
asked Asian American voters for proof of citizenship--questions they did not ask
non-Asian voters. The county registrar-recorder is investigating.
   Four months later, Matthew Lin, an orthopedic surgeon, was elected to the San
Marino City Council, becoming the first minority to join that body.

9/2/01 Sacramento Bee: "Japanese American population fading: The reasons 
include intermarriage, a low birthrate and aging."
    Sacramento's Japanese American community is disappearing due to
intermarriage, low birthrate, aging, and only a trickle of immigration.
    "About 80 percent of us marry 'out.' How more integrated can a group be? That 
means that the number of people with some Japanese DNA is not really 
decreasing, but the direct lineage to the old country is stretched pretty thin." said 
Dr. Richard Ikeda, president of Sacramento's Japanese American Citizens 
League.
   The 2000 census reports 7,175 people of Japanese descent in the city of 
Sacramento, including 533 who said they were part Japanese. In 1990, when 
people were allowed to check only one race, the city's Japanese American 
population was 8,103.
   During the same period, Sacramento's overall Asian population -- fueled by 
immigration from China and Southeast Asia -- grew 28%.
   This pattern is repeated across California and the nation, says Hans Johnson, 
a demographer with the nonprofit Public Policy Institute of California.
   "In 1970, Japanese were the largest Asian group in California," Johnson said.
"By 1990, they were not even in the top three."
   One explanation for the decline is shrinking family size. In his recent study on
fertility rates, Johnson found that California's American-born Asians have one
of the world's lowest birth rates: only 1.2 children per woman.
   "Among those (American-born) Asians, Japanese women have the lowest
birth rate of all," Johnson said.
   California's statewide birth rate is 2.25 children per woman; a rate of 2.1 is
necessary to keep population levels steady.
   Death rate -- due to the graying of the Japanese American community -- is
also a factor, said Larry Shinagawa, a professor of multicultural studies at
Sonoma State University who studies the Japanese American community.
   "The Japanese Americans of the Nisei (second) generation are dying off,"
Shinagawa said. "You have to look at our history here to understand the situation.
Immigrants are typically young, but most Japanese immigration occurred 
decades ago."
   Japanese immigration peaked between 1900 and 1920, when 213,000 came
to the United States, far more than from any other Asian nation.
   Times have changed. In 1998, according to the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, 41,000 immigrants arrived from China, 34,000 from India, and 33,000
from the Philippines -- but just 5,600 people emigrated from Japan.
   At the same time Japanese American numbers dwindle, Shinagawa said
intermarriage has played a role in diluting the group's distinctive identity.
   "About two-thirds of Japanese American females tend to marry whites," the
professor said. "The question is how do you incorporate their children into the
(Japanese) community and give them identity?
   "Ethnicity is keyed to community, to concentration in terms of numbers, and to
physiognomy -- what you look like. If any one of those three are missing, you don't
tend to identify with the ethnicity."
   The situation grieves Shinagawa.
   "These are tough, tough issues," he said. "Japanese Americans are
disappearing -- literally. I feel sad about that. They're becoming white. I don't want
to see our Japanese American heritage lost. There's a bond of attachment that
gives meaning to one's life. But how do you preserve it?"
    Reverence for old traditions cannot be forced on children, said Terry Teruko
Makisima, 74, who grew up in then-rural Florin's large Japanese American farm
community. She was interned with her family in Colorado, but after the war she
returned to the Sacramento area, where she raised four sons.
   "Some children are interested in the culture, some are not," she said. "There's
not much you can do if they're not.
   "There are so many dynamics to this community," said Rev. Bob Oshita of the
Sacramento Buddhist temple. "Consider World War II, the relocation, being a
visible minority, dealing with resentment and negative sentiment. When people
came out of the internment camps, they really pushed their children to
Americanize. The third generation -- the Sansei -- were encouraged to assimilate,
to speak English well, to succeed as Americans.

8/12/01 Associated Press: "APA Coalition Seeks Redistricting To Unify Ethnic 
Communities: Although Making up 13% of California in Census 2000, Asians 
Hold Only 3% - 4 of 120 of the States Legislative Seats"
    In an attempt to unify its different ethnic communities, Asian-American groups 
unveiled a statewide redistricting plan that they hope will give them more political 
clout.
    The plan released Thursday is an unprecedented move for California's many 
Asian ethnicities, which are increasingly joining forces to make their voices heard. 
They will have to compete for attention with Latino organizations that drew their 
own map, but both groups say their proposals are similar.
    At press conferences in Los Angeles and Oakland, members of the coalition of 
Asian Pacific Americans for Fair Redistricting said Asian-Americans have lost 
political power because Assembly boundaries drawn a decade ago split their 
communities into two and sometimes three pieces.
    ``Because we are divided, finding legislative support and building community 
unity is difficult,'' said Diane Poon, executive director of the Chinatown Service 
Center, representing a Los Angeles community that is split into two Assembly 
districts.
    The coalition's proposal would bring together divided ethnic communities 
including Chinatown, Koreatown and Filipinotown in Los Angeles and Orange 
County's Little Saigon and Koreatown. In other areas, including Sacramento, San 
Diego and San Francisco, the proposal would organize several Assembly districts 
around ethnic areas with common needs and concerns.
    Kwoh said the coalition prepared its map with months of cooperation with Latino, 
black, gay and lesbian and other groups, as well as legislative officials.
    The plan increases the number of districts with at least 30% Asian, Latino or 
black populations. It also would increase the number of ``safe'' Assembly districts 
-- ones in which one major party has at least a 10% advantage over the other -- 
from 42 to 46 for Democrats and from 13 to 14 for Republicans.
    The Asian population in California rose nearly 54% over the last decade, to 
nearly 4.4 million. But although they made up about 13% of the state in the 2000 
Census, Asians hold only 3% -- four of 120 -- of the state's legislative seats.
    Communities united by common interests ``should not be divided, should not 
be fractured, and their votes should not be diluted,'' said Stewart Kwoh, president 
and executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern 
California.
    ``If we don't say anything, they will definitely divide our communities again, 
because they don't even know where are communities of interest are most of the 
time,'' Kwoh said.
    Two Hispanic advocacy groups -- the Mexican American Legal Defense and 
Educational Fund and the William C. Velasquez Institute -- released their own map 
last month, but Asian and Latino activists said the two plans have much in common.
    ``Logistically it's very difficult to do, because you have to work with so many 
different groups,'' said Zachary Gonzalez, redistricting coordinator for the Velasquez 
Institute. ``But as far as minority communities concerned, we're all working toward 
the goal of fair and equal representation.''
    Thursday's proposal reflects the growing power Asian-American groups are 
wielding in California politics, said Karin Mac Donald, director of the Statewide 
Database at the University of California, Berkeley, which collects and analyzes 
data used in redistricting.
    As rising numbers of Asian-Americans put more money and effort into political 
efforts, they could see ``a little bit of the squeaky wheel syndrome,'' Mac Donald 
said. ``They didn't have the funding or organization to do that before.''
    In working with the coalition, officials in Sacramento ``have said they're amazed 
by the level of participation in the Asian-American community,'' Kwoh said. ``Now 
the crucial question is whether they'll listen.''
    The coalition will submit its proposal to the Legislature by Wednesday.

8/12/01 Associated Press: "Race, Ethnicity Crimes Slightly Up In California, Says Report,"
   Hate crimes motivated by race and ethnicity rose slightly last year in California, 
but crimes driven by religion or sexual orientation fell, according to state statistics released Friday.
   Overall, the number of hate crimes reported -- about 1,960 -- was about the 
same as in 1999, although the number of total victims fell from 2,436 in 1999 to 
2,352.
   Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who released the 2000 figures, said that although 
it is difficult to pick out trends from the numbers, there were two reasons for optimism: Hate crimes remained 4.7% fewer than they were at their 1996 peak, and more law enforcement agencies than ever -- 252 -- were involved in reporting such acts.
   On Aug. 10, 1999, Buford O. Furrow fired more than 70 bullets into a Jewish
community center, wounding five people, and later killed Filipino-American letter 
carrier Joseph Ileto in a San Fernando Valley neighborhood. Furrow was 
sentenced in March to two life sentences without the possibility of parole.
   ``Every time we hear about another hate crime it brings us back to what 
happened to our brother,'' said Ileto's sister, Deena Ileto. She said hate crimes 
probably are underreported, ``especially among Asian-Americans and other 
ethnic groups, because they're afraid of retaliation or causing trouble.''
   Blacks were the most common single target for hate crimes, with 31% of the 
offenses directed at them. About 20% of hate crimes were directed at homosexuals, 
12% against Jews, 10% against Hispanics, 7% against whites and 5% against 
Asians.
    Race and ethnicity were the motivating factor in 1,234 reported cases, a 5% 
drop from 1999. Religion was a factor in about 300 cases -- an 11% drop -- and 
there were 7% fewer reported cases involving sexual orientation.
   In a press conference, Lockyer singled out the city of Los Angeles and Orange 
County as areas with ``disappointing'' hate-crime prosecution statistics.
   Of the 65 hate-crime cases referred to the city attorney, only 11 were filed by prosecutors. Overall, filings were made in nearly 77% of the cases referred to the 58 county and six city attorneys in the report.
   Orange County's record of just three cases prosecuted as hate crimes among 
11 referred ``suggests that Orange County has a lot to do to catch up with the world,'' Lockyer said.
   Officials in the offices of Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn -- who was city attorney 
last year -- and Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said many of 
the cases they received simply didn't rise to the level of a hate crime.
   ``If I'm walking down the street and somebody calls me a derogatory name, ... 
while not a great thing to do, it's not a crime,'' said Julie Wong, Hahn's press 
secretary.
   ``Our office takes this seriously,'' said Mike Fell, the Orange County senior 
deputy district attorney who oversees hate-crime prosecution. ``If people learn 
about tolerance ... I'll be satisfied if the numbers someday go down to zero.''

7/6/01 Los Angeles Times: "Asian Indians Remake Silicon Valley: As their numbers surge, high-tech skills ease the transition for many,"
    The high-tech boom drew an ethnic melange of the skilled and educated from around the world, immigrants with college degrees, middle-class incomes and children who have often raised the academic bar in public schools.
    A study published in 1999 by the California Public Policy Institute found that nearly a quarter of the Silicon Valley's high-tech companies were headed by Chinese or Indian immigrants. 
    In Santa Clara County, the heart of the Silicon Valley, no ethnic group has grown as dramatically as Asian Indians, whose numbers have more than tripled in the last decade, effectively moving their California capital from Los Angeles County to the Silicon Valley.
    Statewide, the number of Indian residents nearly doubled over the decade to 314,819, keeping California the national leader. U.S. census figures show that of the Asian subgroups in the state, the Indian population shot up the fastest during the 1990s.
     They find a high-tech meritocracy that helps blunt the jarring sense of dislocation that can accompany a move from one society to another.
     At Fremont's Mission San Jose High School, the student body is 61% minority, much of it Asian, and comes from families working in high-tech or other professional fields.
     As the demographics have changed, so have the academics. The curriculum has become more advanced, because that is what the parents and students want. Out of a student body of 2,000, a third are identified as gifted.
     At Ardenwood Elementary in Fremont, where 73% of the students are nonwhite, roughly half the children come from homes in which a second language is spoken -- ranging from Spanish to Arabic to Hindi.
     At San Jose State University, the white enrollment is 47% and dropping. 


6/14/01 Los Angeles Times: "An Upside Seen for Latinos, Despite Villaraigosa's Loss,"
L.A. Voters in Mayoral Races
     June 2001
     White: 52%
     Black: 17%
     Latino: 22%
     Asian: 6%
     Other: 3%

     April 1997*
     White: 65%
     Black: 13%
     Latino: 15%
     Asian: 4%
     Other: 3%

     June 1993
     White: 72%
     Black: 12%
     Latino: 10%
     Asian: 4%
     Other: 2%

     * There was no June runoff in 1997.  Source: Los Angeles Times exit polls

6/3/01 San Francisco Chronicle: "Race card emerges in L.A. mayor contest,"  According to the 2000 Census, 3,694,820 people live in Los Angeles -- 47% Hispanic, 30% white, 11% black and 10% Asian.  However, the electorate -- 1,538,229 voters as of January -- is 55% white, 22% Latino, 12%, 10% "other" and 1% Asian. 

5/23/01 Los Angeles Times: "State's Asian Population Climbs 35%,"
    Overall, the number of Asian residents rose 35.2%, to almost 3.7 million (not counting the about half a million people who identified themselves as multiracial and part Asian). 
    The 2000 census reflects the continued suburban diaspora of Chinese Americans, who neared the 1-million mark in pushing past Filipinos to become the state's largest Asian group. Though the Chinese population dropped 6% in the city of Los Angeles, it grew more than 34% in the county and strongly throughout the rest of the region. 
    Mirroring a national trend, California's Japanese American population fell almost 8% in the 1990s, affected by intermarriage and a low birth rate. Regionally, the sharpest drop occurred in the city of Los Angeles, where the number of Japanese fell 18.5% to under 37,000. 
    The new economy fueled a 97% advance for Asian Indians, particularly in Northern California, where the technology industry needed computer programmers and engineers. 
    Southern California's Vietnamese population grew sharply in the 1990s to 230,000, including 135,548 in Orange County, where the Vietnamese American community surged almost 89%. 
    After the 1980s, when the state's Vietnamese population more than quadrupled, international immigration largely dried up, shrinking in Orange County from 10,510 in 1992 to 1,017 in 1998, INS records show. But a wave of domestic migration appears to have taken up the slack somewhat. The Southern California Vietnamese community's hub is still Westminster--known as Little Saigon--where the population grew 138% to exceed 27,000, and the adjoining city of Garden Grove, where the group gained 136% and reached 35,406. But the 2000 census also showed Vietnamese extending into historically white cities such as Huntington Beach (a 53% increase), Fountain Valley (152%) and Tustin (73%). 
    After astronomical growth in the 1980s, California's Chinese American community in the 1990s jumped 39% to 980,642. Driven by both immigration and native births, the number of Chinese in California has more than tripled since the 1980 census. Since the mid-1970s, the Chinese population has become increasingly suburban, dispersing into the San Gabriel Valley and elsewhere. In the 1990s, the Chinese community shot up almost 136% in Walnut and more than 42% in Cerritos, helping to establish Asian majorities in those cities. In Monterey Park, the first Chinese suburb and the only other Southern California city with an Asian majority, the group grew by almost 13%. Chinese suburban newcomers are gradually translating population into political heft. In the 1990s, Chinese Americans won seats on the Walnut and Diamond Bar city councils, as well as on several San Gabriel Valley school boards.
    Like Chinese, Korean Americans moved steadily into the suburbs in the '90s, while increasing their numbers by one-third statewide to 345,882. Orange County's Korean population grew about twice as fast as that of Los Angeles County, which slightly outpaced its urban core, including Koreatown.
    The Filipino population rose by 25.6% statewide, to 918,678, and 27% in Southern California, to 371,421, experiencing especially large increases in Orange County and the Inland Empire, but it fell well short of predictions. Demographers and community leaders suggested that improving economic conditions in the Philippines may have drawn some older Filipinos back where their dollars go further. 
    By contrast, economic opportunity attracted Asian Indians--those who identified themselves as such or as Bengalese, Bharat, Dravidian, East Indian or Goanese--to the state in unprecedented numbers. Many came to the United States on special high-tech visas, settling in communities in the South Bay and East Bay. The number of Asian Indians rose 31% in Santa Clara County and 180% in Alameda County. Southern California experienced a milder version of the same trend: The Asian Indian population grew by more than 70% in Orange, Riverside and Ventura counties and made solid gains elsewhere.
    The 2000 figures for Central California's breadbasket showed the stilling of a trend from the 1980s, when thousands of Southeast Asian refugees settled in the San Joaquin Valley. Fresno became home to more Hmong than any other U.S. city. But when the agricultural sector took especially long to recover from the early '90s recession, thousands of Hmong started migrating east to Minnesota and Wisconsin. The 2000 census provides the best evidence yet of their secondary movement: Numbers of what the census calls "other" Asians -- which includes Hmong, Laotians, Cambodians and Thais--rose just 2.6% in San Joaquin County and 4.5% in Fresno after posting hefty gains a decade ago. In Stockton, the Asian population inched up 2.4% after skyrocketing 225% in the 1980s.

VIETNAMESE GROWTH SINCE 1990
California:59.5%
Southern Calif.: 57.6%
L.A. County: 24.8%
Orange County: 88.7%
Ventura County: 33.1%

SOUTHLAND ASIANS
Chinese: 24%
Filipino: 22%
Korean: 15%
Vietnamese: 14%
Japanese: 9%
Asian Indian: 6%
Other: 10%
Source: 2000 Census

Asians in city of L.A., 2000
Filipino: 27.4%
Korean: 24.8%
Chinese: 17.1%
Japanese: 10.0%
Asian Indian: 6.7%
Vietnamese: 5.3%
Other: 8.7%

Asian in L.A. County, 2000
Chinese: 29.0%
Filipino: 22.9%
Korean: 16.4%
Japanese: 9.8%
Vietnamese: 6.9%
Asian Indian: 5.3%
Other: 9.8%

States With the Largest Vietnamese Populations
1. California: 447,032
2. Texas: 134,961
3. Washington: 46,149
4. Virginia: 37,309
5. Florida: 33,190
6. Louisiana:24,358
7. New York: 23,818

Source: 2000 census Note: Some figures may not total 100% because of rounding.

5/22/01 Sacramento Bee: "Asian Americans flex political muscle," Judy Chu was sworn in as Assemblywoman from the 49th Assembly District. The historically Latino seat includes East Los Angeles where Latino voters outnumber Asian Americans 44% to 25%. People of Asian and Pacific islander ancestry are California's fastest-growing group. From 1990 to 2000, their numbers increased from more than 2.8 million to nearly 4.4 million. They now make up nearly 13% of the state's population. Four Asian Americans, all Democrats, now hold seats in the Legislature. Three Chinese Americans have been elected since November: Wilma Chan of Oakland, Carol Liu of South Pasadena and Judy Chu. Assemblyman George Nakano, elected in 1998, was a beneficiary of a decision made by the state Supreme Court a decade ago that kept intact his hometown, Torrance, and its sizable Japanese American population. Kathay Feng, project director for the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, said a coalition of Asian Americans has identified nine geographic areas of interest, three times more than in 1991, including the Bay Area, where activists want to keep intact Daly City with its large Filipino American population, and the "Little Saigon" area of Orange County, from Westminster into Garden Grove. When Don Nakanishi, director of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA, began putting together the National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac in 1976, it was a small list, confined to Western states. Now, there are 2,200 elected or appointed officials in 34 states, including hundreds in California.

May 4-10, 2001 AsianWeek.com, "Asian Assembly District Possible in the City,"  
    The 2000 census verified that San Francisco's 12th state assembly district is the most Asian-American in California.  According to a Chinese American Voters Education Committee (CAVEC) analysis, the 12th district reaches into the western half and three-quarters of the southern parts of San Francisco including heavily Asian American neighborhoods such as the Richmond, Sunset, Excelsior and Visitacion Valley. The current district crosses the San Mateo County line to incorporate the northern sliver of Daly City, and has a population of 406,243, which is 43.5% Asian American. Non-Latino whites went from 49.8 percent of the district to 36.3 percent in 10 years.
    The 13th District, which has 399,116 people, covers primarily the northeast and eastern sectors with Bayview/Hunters Point in the southeast. The districts 22.6% Asian Pacific Islanders come from Chinese, Filipino and Japanese population bases in Chinatown, Japantown, SOMA and parts of Visitacion Valley.
    The state legislature is reallocating Californias 33-million population into 80 assembly districts. Because Californias overall population has grown at a higher rate than San Franciscos, the citys two districts have to add population from beyond its limits thus creating the possibility for the most Asian American district in the state.
    Any district lines have to be passed by the California legislature and the governor by September 2001. There are also possible court challenges by Republicans, unhappy with the districts drawn by a Democratic majority legislature. Voting rights groups concerned about possible gerrymandering or dilution of political minorities may also go to court.
    The outcome of such lines could also impact the outcome of the March 2002 Assembly race, especially with Supervisor Leland Yee, former Supervisor Mabel Teng, and BART Director and AsianWeek President James Fang expressing interest in the seat.

12/24/00 Los Angeles Times (www.latimes.com)
"Vietnamese Jumping GOP's Ship.  Politics: Party registration now almost even in Orange County's formerly conservative immigrant community," http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/natpol/20001224/t000122637.html
    The GOP, which once enjoyed a 4-1 registration margin over Democrats in Little Saigon, has seen its lead steadily shrink over the last eight years.  Republicans can now claim the allegiance of 39% of all Vietnamese voters, compared with 33% for Democrats, according to an analysis of official election records.  Eight years ago, the Republicans had 58%. 
    Experts and community leaders suggest that the Vietnamese in Little Saigon--and especially older residents--are becoming more concerned about issues such as Medicare, Social Security and programs for the poor. 
     GOP officials are hopeful that they will soon be able to shore up party support among the Vietnamese American community's 55,000 voters; they assert that the recent decline in registration has less to do with ideology than the effect of a two-term Democratic president who visited California 50 times. 
    The movement in party allegiance during the Clinton administration has been steady.  When he was elected in 1992, Vietnamese American Republicans outnumbered their Democratic counterparts nearly 3 to 1 (18,327 to 6,833). Today the numbers stand at 21,570 Republicans and 18,064 Democrats--a spread of only 3,506. An additional 15,347 Vietnamese Americans are registered as independents. 
    During the 1970s and 1980s, Little Saigon was considered a bastion of conservative Republicanism. The area of Westminster and Garden Grove became a settling ground for emigrants from communist Vietnam, and many residents embraced right-wing politicians such as former Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), who represented the district for years. 
    Experts say the boost in Democratic fortunes is due in part to the grass-roots activism of Mai Cong, the founder of the Vietnamese Community of Orange County. She stunned many in the nation's largest Vietnamese emigrant community by co-chairing a 1992 Clinton-Gore committee in Little Saigon. 
    Mai and her husband, Dinh Le, a former Vietnamese Army officer who founded the Vietnamese-American Phoenix Democratic Club, can chuckle today over the community's shock when they began actively campaigning for the Democratic presidential ticket. They said they even endured death threats from extremists in the community back in 1992. 
    "Since then, the Vietnamese community has changed, and changed drastically, from being almost 90-something percent Republican to the point where today we [Democrats and Republicans] are almost even," she said. "And if you consider the independents, most of them are people who used to be Republican and are now moving more to the center." 
    Mai's organization operates a low-cost health clinic, a senior center, and several counseling programs for Vietnamese immigrants and refugees in offices it has built in Santa Ana, Westminster and Garden Grove. 
    In the three months leading up to this year's election, the group launched a get-out-the-vote campaign in Little Saigon, and also distributed about 4,000 voter registration cards. Because of the organization's nonprofit status, it does not urge registrants to join
one party or another. 
    Dinh believes that many immigrants first questioned their allegiance to the Republicans in 1995, when the GOP-controlled House proposed a law denying benefits to all immigrants until they had been in the country at least five years. 
    "[That] literally drove some people here in the Vietnamese community to become Democrats," Dinh said. "That was [a] real watershed event." 
    He said the proposal happened to coincide with the arrival of the first wave of political detainees, the former South Vietnamese military officers and government officials who had been imprisoned in labor camps since the war's end more than 15 years earlier. 
    "The refugees who were just then coming, they needed help.  Without some help from the government, from American taxpayers, it would have been disastrous. They couldn't have survived," Dinh said. 
    The law was eventually softened during negotiations over the Balanced Budget Act, clearing the way for the former detainees to
receive temporary financial aid. 


3/10/00 Los Angeles Times: "Poll Says Democrats Gained Among Asian Americans.  Politics: Analysis shows 45% of the ethnic group identified themselves as such, up from 36% in '96 presidential election. Backlash over fund-raising scandal is cited"

    In the first California presidential primary after the 1996 Democratic fund-raising scandal, which tarnished the image of the Asian American community, a significant percentage of Republican Asian Americans in Los Angeles and Orange counties crossed over and voted Democratic, according to an exit poll released Thursday.
    The Asian Pacific American Legal Center's survey of 3,000 voters--1,200 of them Asian Americans--in heavily Asian areas in the two counties showed that 45% of Asians identified themselves as Democrats in Tuesday's election, compared to 36% in the 1996 presidential election.
    Four years ago, 40% of Asian voters labeled themselves Republicans and 36% Democrats and 24% others.
    The snapshot of Asian American voting patterns in 14 cities was conducted in six languages -- Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish and Tagalog. It took in 41 precincts in Los Angeles, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel, San Marino, South Pasadena, Torrance, Gardena, Carson, Long Beach and nine poll sites in Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Westminster.
    Veteran election watchers attributed the change smearing of the entire Asian American community because of the fund-raising actions of a few, an unfair targeting of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee as a spy, and use of the word "gook" by Republic presidential candidate John McCain.
    Two prominent Chinese Americans, former Delaware Lt. Gov. S.B. Woo and former UC Chancellor Chang-lin Tien, founded the "80-20" initiative last year to promote Chinese American participation in the 2000 presidential election.
    The two-county survey found that in the presidential race, Asian American voters favored Vice President Al Gore by 43% to Gov. George W. Bush's 30%, with 19% of the voters choosing Sen. John McCain (D-Ariz.) and 7% former Sen. Bill Bradley.
    By ethnicity, Gore received the highest percentage of votes from Koreans, 54%, followed by Filipinos 50%, Chinese 46%, Vietnamese 31% and Japanese 27%.
    About 50% of Asian American Independents voted for Gore.
    "Asian Americans have, to some degree, mirrored what happened to Latino voters," said Stewart Kwoh, president of the legal center. "The perception of Republicans as anti-immigrant has struck a chord in a number of Asian American communities.  Kwoh said the welfare reform law too has helped galvanize the community.
    In the senatorial race, Dianne Feinstein garnered 58.6% of the Asian voters to 16.7% for Republican challenger Rep. Tom Campbell and 13.3% for Linh Dao, a Republican from Fremont.  By ethnicity, Feinstein received 70% of Filipino votes, 68% of Korean votes, 63% of the Japanese, 56% of Chinese and 39% of Vietnamese votes.
    The exit poll also showed that more than 13% of the Asian voters went to the polls for the first time. Asians also had the highest percentage of voters who said they were more likely to vote with bilingual assistance.

* * *

Asian Voting

In exit polls, 1,200 Asian Americans in 14 cities with heavily Asian populations in Los Angeles and Orange counties were among 3,000 people asked how they voted and whether bilingual help would benefit them

Asian Voter's Choice for U.S. President in Primary

Gore: 43%
Bush: 30%
McCain: 19% Bradley: 7%
Other: 1%

* * *

Asian Voter's Choice for U.S. Senator in Primary

Feinstein: 59% Campbell: 17%
Dao: 13%
Other: 11%

* * *

Voters More Likely to Vote With Bilingual Help

White: 4%
Black: 16%
Latino: 42%
Asian: 53%

Source: Asian Pacific American Legal Center