DNC Fund-Raiser John Huang

* Your recent articles on John Huang (Oct. 19 and 21) leave the impression that he has been a puppet of foreign interests, manipulating Asians and Asian Americans in a kind of sinister support of the Democratic National Committee. Nobody who has worked with Huang could possibly imagine you are speaking of the person we know.

I met Huang about a year before the Bush-Clinton race and have worked with him on and off since in a variety of community and local business capacities. At that time about 60% of registered Asian Americans were Republican. The overwhelming amount of political monies flowed in large chunks to that party from bankers, businessmen and others.

What distinguished Huang then--and now--from others trying to mobilize the community was that his vision is not connected to dollars. He spoke to everyone, not just the influential. He argued that “dollars equal access” is a false equation that should be replaced by “involvement equals opportunity.”

Huang has preached publicly and privately that Asian Americans must reverse their low voter interest and seek out political responsibility. His pride in his ethnicity has translated into an embrace of ethnic and racial diversity that makes friends everywhere.

PHILIP BORDEN

Rancho Palos Verdes

* Re “Asian Gifts Coverage Called Stereotyping,” Oct. 23: What is the real issue? I believe the issue is money being taken by U.S. elected officials and political parties for presidential and congressional election campaigns from illicit foreign donations.

The Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California and the Chinese Americans United for Self-Empowerment can do much, like all Americans, to participate in the political process by demanding that our elected public officials be held accountable for their actions and behavior.

ETELVINA R. PATMAS

Orange

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* Bob Dole is agitated about campaign donations to the Democrats. Puzzling? The records have shown that Sen. Dole has voted no three times on campaign finance reform legislation--1987, 1991 and 1992.

President Clinton’s record? According to a Ralph Nader publication, Public Citizen, in 1993, the president announced a campaign finance reform package “offering a number of sweeping changes in the way candidates raise money and run for office. . . . But no sooner did the president announce this package than Republican opponents . . . denounced it and threatened a filibuster.”

JUNE V. HUGHES

Laguna Hills