Asian Group Backs Gore for President

For the first time ever, an Asian American political action committee Sunday endorsed a presidential nominee and vowed to deliver 80% of Asian American votes to Vice President Al Gore in the November election.

The 80-20 Initiative’s action in Los Angeles followed two days of spirited discussions, debates and caucusing over which presidential nominee would best serve the interests of the nation’s 11 million people of Asian ancestry.

In announcing the decision at a jampacked news conference at the Universal City Hilton, former UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien, chairman of the endorsement committee, was quick to note that neither political party has treated Asian Americans well. But on balance, he said, Gore and the Democrats have done more “to advance issues” important to Asian Americans than Texas Gov. George W. Bush and the Republicans.

Gore garnered 26 votes and Bush 7 from 33 delegates, evenly divided among Democrats, Republicans and independents.

Tien called the group’s decision “historic” and said the 80-20 Initiative’s members will urge all Asian Americans to help “form a swing vote bloc of 80% to become a vital political force in the outcome of this year’s and future elections.”

Tien, an internationally renowned engineer who helped solve the problem of keeping heat-shielding tiles from falling off U.S. space shuttles, said he has put his reputation on the line.

The Berkeley professor acknowledged that some of his friends have tried to dissuade him, but he said he feels “strongly” about the movement as a way to empower the Asian American community.

Most of the 33 delegates and seven alternates who had come from across the country for the three-day convention, which began with a fund-raiser Friday attended by 700 predominantly ethnic Chinese immigrants, were at the news conference. Also then, Republican members explained why they chose to go with Gore this presidential election.

It was a difficult decision, said molecular biologist Kenneth Fong, a longtime Republican Party activist and donor from Palo Alto.

“It would be a great challenge for me to cross over to vote for a Democrat,” he said, “but I am putting my personal interest aside for the sake of the Asian Pacific American community.”

Fong, president of Clontech Laboratories, said he reached the decision because “at this point,” the Democrats have done more to earn the group’s endorsement.

“I hope in the future a Republican candidate can win that kind of endorsement from [80-20],” he said.

Shaie-Mei Temple, a delegate from New Orleans, said that although she has been a “staunch Republican” for more than 20 years, she is switching her support “because on a comparative basis,” the Democratic Party has been more responsive to Asian Americans.

Temple was overcome with emotion.

“We are never going to be combative as Jesse Jackson, but somebody has to stand up and got to serve notice that we won’t always stand there quietly with endurance, with forbearance, and just keep working and working until somebody recognizes us,” Temple said.

“We want to be noticed.”

Stephen S. Ko, a physician from Hackettstown, N.J., said he got involved in politics 35 years ago because the history of Asian immigration to America brought tears to his eyes.

Over the years, he achieved a prominent place in Republican Party politics, but he said he has come to realize that one man’s effort is not enough.

That’s why he joined forces with 80-20, he said.

Former Delaware Gov. S.B. Woo, a Democrat and a prime mover of 80-20, said his group is already preparing a $700,000 fund-raiser for Gore to be held “one night in California.”

Nearly 40% of the nation’s Asian Americans live in California, where they are 12% of the population and 6% of the registered voters.

Elated by the weekend of activists, Woo said the future of 80-20 is bright.

“Have you ever heard of an organization that has 350,000 persons on its e-mail list?” Woo said.

The group has begun radio and TV spots in the Chinese-language stations in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the two California cities with the largest concentrations of Asian Americans. Soon it will air ads on Korean and Vietnamese broadcast outlets as well, he said.

“We are going to channel our best and the brightest to volunteer for the Gore organization,’ said Woo.

Political scientist Bruce Cain, director of the Institute for Government Studies at UC Berkeley, called 80-20’s bloc voting strategy an “important step forward” in getting some recognition as a group from politicians who need to talk to the Asian American community.

He noted that the Asian population for the most part is dispersed and that Asians tend to split votes. “But following the example of the Jewish community or the Armenian community or any number of smaller communities, they certainly can play the resource game and the endorsement game,” he said.

UCLA political scientist Don Nakanishi, who attended all three days of 80-20 activities, said the endorsement represents “a new chapter” in the 150-year history of Asians in America.

“I’ve come to learn that one cannot underestimate the ability and talents of Asian Americans,” he said.

“What this group is trying to do is organize and leverage Asian Americans’ votes,” he said. “The timing is appropriate because it comes on the heels of the l996 presidential fund-raising campaign scandals. Both parties played a role in demonizing and victimizing Asian Americans.

“It just makes sense that a group emerges outside both political parties and tries to assert Asian American interests. I am happy that happened.”

Joel Szabat, principal consultant to the Legislature’s Republican Caucus, who represented the Republicans at Saturday’s presentation to the 80-20 delegates, said he is disappointed with the group’s decision but “not surprised” because of the “hostile nature” of the endorsement hearing.

“Independent-minded Asian American voters will not go to the polls and pull a lever for Al Gore after the Clinton-Gore record of mistreatment and abandonment of the Asian American community in fund-raising scandals,” Szabat said.