White Plains CitizeNetReporter - 200 Asian Americans Running for Office Nationally

WPCNR NEWSREEL. From Maureen Keating-Tuchiya. October 31, 2002:Worth taking note of is the intriguing number of Asian Pacific Americans running for office this coming Tuesday. There are 3 Gubernatorial candidates, 4 Lieutenant Governor candidates, 14 running for the House of Representatives, 30 State Senate candidates and 93 State Representative candidates.

APAICS Chair Clayton Fong stated, “It is exciting that we have identifie close to 200 APA candidates who are running next week. And there were many more APA candidates who ran in primary elections, but unfortunately did not advance to the general elections. It is vital that the Asian Pacific American community continue to identify, encourage and train qualified APAs to run for public office. This is one of the major roles that APAICS plays on behalf of the community. Post November 5th , we look forward to having more APA elected officials as role models to inspire the next group of candidates.”

“Some of the key races that we are watching are the Hawaii gubernatorial race where a win by Mazie Hirono will enable Hawaii to retain an APA governor; the Guam gubernatorial race where Congressman Robert Underwood is running against Felix Camacho; and the Colorado Fourth Congressional District seat where a win by Colorado State Senate President Stan Matsunaka will make political history by sending the first APA Member of Congress from Colorado,” commented Daphne Kwok, Executive Director of APAICS.

Asian Pacific Americans Register to Vote in Record Numbers

“According to analysis prepared by Karthick Ramakrishnan, a research fellow at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, voter registration increased from 56% to 63% of all eligible APA voters from 1998 to 2000. The voting rates increased from 37% of eligible APA voters in 1998 to 53% in 2000. Even though midterm elections usually have lower voter turnouts, it is important that next week we will be able to dramatically improve the APA voting rate from the 1998 37% turnout,” stated Daphne Kwok.

The Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational organization based in Washington, D.C., that seeks to build a politically empowered APA community, to fill the political pipeline for Asian Pacific Americans to enter and advance into elected office, and to be a resource to Congress about the APA community.


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