ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : A Delegation Trying to Reflect the State

Despite the nativist rhetoric of some misguided voices, the Republican Party in California is not missing the opportunity to play Lady Liberty for some of the newest Americans. The California delegation in Houston this week reflects this welcome expansion of democratic participation and representation in the GOP.

At one festival earlier this month aimed at unifying the diverse Asian community, the Republican Party staffed two booths and imported U.S. Transportation Secretary Andrew H. Card Jr. to speak as a “special envoy” of President Bush. And a parade of party luminaries from the national and state levels has passed through local Asian-American communities in recent years. One local party chairman openly seeks “fresh new political ground to plow.”

Such efforts could pay off down the road. Tae Ho Choi, a Pasadena mini-mart owner and South Korean immigrant, became a U.S. citizen only four years ago; this year he won a seat on the Los Angeles County Republican Central Committee.

In Orange County, a party program called Citizens by Choice aims at recruiting Latino candidates and training them in how to win elections, ranging from local offices all the way to Congress.

Overall, local party efforts have produced several Vietnamese-American and Indian-American candidates for city councils and school boards and one Korean-American congressional candidate on the November ballot.

Democrats, too, are aggressively targeting immigrants, but the Republican Party, with its historical emphasis on anti-communism and individual entrepreneurship, seems to be developing a philosophical affinity with some immigrant groups. Once they get their bearings and begin thinking about politics, many immigrants share with their Republican suitors a fundamental mistrust of government.

These efforts to broaden the party landscape have produced a delegation in Houston that mirrors fairly closely the actual demographics of the California electorate. And some members have already emerged in leadership roles: Matthew K. Fong is the most prominent Asian-American in the delegation, having been appointed to the State Board of Equalization; Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, still billed as a rising star in the party, addressed his second GOP convention this week.

One way or another, the newest Republicans will help determine the direction of a party looking uneasily toward its future.