Ex-Alhambra Mayor Aids Drive to Start Asian Political Committee

A former mayor is joining forces with Allen Co, a twice-defeated City Council candidate of Chinese ancestry, to establish a committee to increase political participation by Asian-Americans.

Co, who ran unsuccessfully for a council seat in 1984 and 1988, attributed his defeats to what he says is prejudice among some white voters and political apathy among some Asian-Americans.

Co is organizing the Asian-American Political Action Committee with help from a friend and political adviser, Stephen Ballreich. Ballreich, 37, served as mayor from 1976 to 1977 during his two terms on the City Council. The two met through a mutual friend about six years ago.

Co and Ballreich said they plan to file organizational papers with the secretary of state and hope to start operating by March. They hope to raise up to $1 million through private donations to finance the committee’s activities.

They said the committee is needed to educate Asian voters in the San Gabriel Valley about the American political process, to encourage Asian-Americans to run for office and to bridge cultural and communication gaps between the white and Asian communities.

A glaring example of such gaps, Ballreich said, is what he encountered when he was campaigning for Co four years ago.

Ballreich said that when he asked his political supporters--many of them whites who said they resented the changing ethnic composition of Alhambra--to vote for Co, “they said they were not going to support an Asian.”

“It was a very sad time for me because it brought to light the deep prejudice that people were developing simply through a lack of communication,” Ballreich said. “I lost some friends over that, and the wounds still have not healed.”

Judy Chu, a Monterey Park councilwoman of Chinese ancestry, welcomed the formation of a political action committee to promote voter education and registration among Asian-Americans.

“They need to be taught many things,” Chu said. “For one thing, how important it is to participate in the political process.”

Harold Chung, president of the Chinese-American Political Action Committee based in Monterey Park, agreed. He said the focus on education would distinguish the new organization from his group, which concentrates more on fund-raising for Asian-American candidates.

Changing City

Asian residents, now nearly 30% of the city’s population of 73,126, have made Alhambra a different city from the one Ballreich left in 1979, when he moved out of state.

“When I got off the freeway I couldn’t believe it,” said Ballreich, recalling the myriad of Asian shops and restaurants he saw when he returned.

Ballreich said his friends told him that if he had been in Alhambra when the changes occurred, he would not have voted for an Asian candidate either.

He said that when he asked his white friends how many Asians they personally knew and tried to be friends with, “the answer was always ‘none,’ and that was the problem.”

Ballreich, who moved to Arkansas in 1979 after resigning his council seat, has helped with both of Co’s City Council races during business visits to California. An owner of The Stephen Co., a political consulting firm based in Arkansas, Ballreich first offered Co advice as a friend and later as a paid consultant.

Ballreich’s abrupt departure from Alhambra politics, just three months after he won reelection, came after he was accused of failing to submit airline and hotel receipts for $2,650 he received for travel on city business.

In a written statement announcing his resignation, Ballreich said he was leaving only because he wanted to spare the City Council “meaningless harassment” from members of All We Can Afford, a citizens group that accused Ballreich of misusing travel funds.

No charges were filed against Ballreich after an investigation by the district attorney, which Ballreich had requested. In his November, 1979, report, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Byrne said that “although evidence of the issue of municipal funds is established,” there was no criminal intent, partly because at the time there was no system of accountability for council members’ travel expenses.

Regret Over Resignation

“Looking back on it,” Ballreich said in a recent interview, “I regret the decision (to resign). I regret turning my back and walking away when I know I wasn’t guilty.”

That decision ended what appeared to be a promising political career. Ballreich made headlines in 1974 when, at the age of 23, he defeated six-term Councilman D’Arcy Quinn to become the youngest council member in city history.

Republican Party leaders considered grooming Ballreich as a possible gubernatorial candidate in the 1990s, said Dick Nichols, executive director of the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce.

Ballreich moved back to Alhambra last year after he was hired as director of communications and research development for California Lincoln Clubs, a statewide political action committee supporting conservative Republican candidates. He said his decision before last November’s election to help form the Asian-American Political Action Committee with Co was a personal project unrelated to his one-year contract with the Lincoln Clubs.

Co said he is covering some of Ballreich’s living expenses in return for his advice on the political action committee and management help at Co’s new restaurant in South El Monte.

Vietnamese Refugee

Co, 36, the first Asian-American to run for the Alhambra City Council, said his ordeals as a Vietnamese refugee motivated him to seek elective office.

Three generations of Cos have fled political turmoil, he said, first from China, then from Vietnam. In 1976, Co moved from a refugee camp in Thailand to Alhambra.

He said his mother and a sister died during the exodus from Vietnam, and five other siblings never made it out of the country.

“At that time, people blamed it (the fall of Vietnam) on the communists,” Co said. But he said the Vietnamese people themselves were at fault.

“You (should) blame yourself 50%, because you never acted,” Co said. “My father didn’t have a political consciousness. There was nothing that taught me to become political.”

But after he reached the United States, Co said he promised himself that he would be involved in his community and the government. He said he wants to make sure that his children and grandchildren will never have to repeat his family’s experience.

After Co decided to run for the council in 1984, Ballreich said he tried to warn Co about the negative reception he would receive from some white voters.

“I was very blunt with him,” Ballreich said. “I knew there was a growing amount of resentment because of the cultural difference.”

He remembers telling Co: “You’re going to become a punching bag for the Caucasian community to take out all their frustrations on.”

Doors Slammed

When Co walked the precincts, some residents slammed doors in his face, and others complained about Asians “changing the texture of the community,” Co recalled.

In her successful campaign in Monterey Park in 1988, Chu said she did not encounter anti-Asian sentiment.

“I wondered starting out if I would be accepted,” Chu said. “I was pleasantly surprised that people did look at qualifications and your message. They did respond to me as a person.”

Against incumbent Parker Williams and two others in 1984, Co ran third among four candidates seeking one seat.

In 1988, Co finished third among three candidates seeking one seat. He lost to Boyd Condie, a political newcomer endorsed by Mayor Talmage Burke.

Condie and Burke both said they support any organization that will help educate voters and encourage political participation. But Condie said that race was not a pivotal issue in last November’s election.

“That may be a factor but that’s not the only factor,” Condie said. He said voters may have believed that as an accountant and former member of the city’s Long-Range Financial Planning Committee, he was better qualified to serve on the council.

Condie said that the experience Co encountered while walking precincts is not unique.

“I got rejected at some places I went to, too,” Condie said.

All of the candidates said they had to deal with political apathy among Asian-Americans.

Co attributes apathy to a lack of understanding about the American political system. He said many Asians are wary of governments; others may feel intimidated by ballots and the voting process.

Co said he and Ballreich visited hundreds of homes to explain voting procedures during the November campaign.

Through a political action committee, Co and Ballreich hope to foster greater acceptance of Asian candidates. “It’s going to take a willingness (from) both sides before some positive changes start to occur,” Ballreich said.