Thanked With an Insult : Asian Americans are right to be offended by Democrats’ inquiries

The Democratic National Committee, scrambling to stamp out potential campaign contribution scandals, has engaged in an unconscionable affront to Asian American donors. DNC operatives have called donors of Asian ancestry and questioned them about their citizenship status and the source of the contributed funds. They also asked for Social Security numbers and, in a final insult, requested permission to run credit checks on the donors.

The only reason for such questions is that the donors share the race of John Huang, the former vice chairman of the committee’s finance operation and now the central figure in Justice Department and congressional inquiries into Democratic campaign contributions.

Asians and Asian Americans gave about $6 million to President Clinton’s 1996 campaign--mostly in small contributions and most raised by Huang. Of that total, the DNC has returned $1.2 million because the funds improperly came from foreign companies or from individuals who were not living in the United States legally or were not American citizens. On Friday, the DNC disclosed that it is returning an additional $1.5 million.

The inquiries to Asian Americans occurred in a phone poll made in conjunction with a DNC audit. The presumption that spurred the polling was that Asian American donations might be tainted.

Targeted were several hundred donors whose backgrounds had not been “vetted thoroughly” when the contributions were accepted, said former DNC Chairman Donald Fowler. “They were not exclusively Asian or persons with non-European names,” he insisted. So where’s the comfort in that? Those grilled, even politely, could hardly feel like anything but a suspect.

The DNC’s problems are of its own making. There’s a sense that the committee would like to push responsibility for its potential legal troubles onto a single ethnic group. That may not be the case, but someone should have seen this uproar coming. It’s going to take some serious explaining to the party’s Asian American supporters.

The fiasco comes at a time when Asian Americans, the nation’s fastest-growing minority group, are beginning to flex their political muscle. The DNC action could have a chilling effect. Some Asian Americans believe the fund-raising controversy quashed the opportunity for one of their number to be named to a Cabinet post.

The phone poll is a sad reminder that, despite Asian Americans’ considerable professional and educational achievements and their long presence in this country, some live under a concern that they are not fully accepted.

Should Asian Americans now decide never to give another dime to the DNC, the committee can only blame its own actions. No group outside the DNC should be made a scapegoat for problems deep within the organization.