Asian American voting trends in Southern California

09.30.06 - Posted by AsiansVote

PasadenaStarNews.com has posted an article about Asian American voting trends in Southern California. According to a recent report, Asian Americans turned out for the 2004 election at a slightly lower rate than the general population:

The study found that, in Los Angeles County, 71 percent of registered Asian voters actually went to the polls, compared with 78 percent of registered voters in general.

In Orange County, 68 percent of registered Asian voters cast ballots, while 73 percent of all registered voters did.

And different Asian groups demonstrated different levels of support for Democrats in different geographical areas:

For instance, in the contest for president, a majority in most Asian ethnic groups in Los Angeles voted for Sen. John Kerry, while 53 percent of Cambodians preferred President George Bush. Kerry was most popular with South Asians - 77 percent voted for him.
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44 percent of Vietnamese voters in L.A. County favored Bush, versus 63 percent in Orange County, the study found.

Should be interesting to see how these numbers shift in 2006 and 2008 in the wake of the Republican anti-immigrant campaign.

Another tidbit of note:

In the 2004 election, Monterey Park was the only Southern California city with a majority Asian American electorate: Of those eligible to vote, 52 percent were Asian American.

The article goes on to quote Democrat Mike Eng, a Monterey Park City Councilman and now running for the State Assembly regarding the need to build coalitions to win elections:

One way to increase turnout is to have an Asian name on the ballot, said Monterey Park City Councilman and Assembly candidate Mike Eng. But Asian candidates are unable to win elections based only on that affiliation, he said.

When Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park, defended her seat, 83 percent of Asian Americans voted for her, as did 76 percent of Latinos and 54 percent of whites.

"If Judy had pegged her whole persona to just one of those groups, she would not have had that overwhelming support," said Eng, who is married to Chu. "That's really what it's all about - The ability to transcend one racial group."

Finally, a bit of poking around reveals that Mike Eng is running for the Assembly seat his wife is vacating. Charles Woo at The Cause Report explores the issue of Asian American candidates endorsing Asian American successors and the opportunities and challenges it represents in racially diverse districts:

During this past election, John Chiang endorsed Judy Chu for his seat at the BOE, and in turn, Chu endorsed Eng to succeed her. More symbolically, they had their victory parties together, in the Asian-heavy city of Monterey Park. As Asians gain more political strength, our political leaders become more comfortable openly supporting each other. In turn, the expectations of the community are raised. That is why the issue of successor was raised with Mike Eng while Chu and other previous APA elected officials got a free pass on this subject. This is an indication of the community getting smarter with their political leaders.

The subject is particularly sensitive because the Assembly seat held by Chu/Eng could go either way as an Asian seat or a Latino seat. Both Chu and Eng have not faced serious challenges from the Latino political establishment for it. The seat that Villaraigosa gave up is now going back as a “Latino Seat”. It is interesting to see if Chu and Eng will spend the political capitol needed to groom another Asian to follow their political path beyond the City Council of Monterey Park.
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Eng will have to maintain his Latino support if he wants to avoid serious challenge in the Assembly or run for the Senate, and that makes his choice of whom to endorse all the trickier.

As Eng himself says in the PasadenaStarNews.com article, Asian American candidates need to build coalitions with other ethnic groups. The Republican anti-immigrant campaign provides a great backdrop against which leaders can highlight the shared interests of Asians and Latinos in particular. Let's hope our candidates make the most of the opportunity.

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09.30.06 | Voting Trends