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Home | Bay and California News Section
July 6 - July 12, 2000
Home | Bay and California News Section
POWs Waiting for Apologies
(in National News)
API Advisory Commission Visits S.F.
(in Bay Area News)
Asian Food Markets in the Bay Area
(in Business)
Lampo Leong's Forces • Contemplation
(in A&E)
Reasons to Celebrate
(in Opinion)
Political Potstickers
Part I: Playing Political Chairs
By Samson Wong
CLAIMING THE ASIAN SEAT: What is currently Kevin Shelley’s political home, the 12th Assembly District, could be home to an Asian American successor to represent the most Asian American district in the state in 2002 when he terms out.
Or, it could happen this year in a special election. The scenario: State Senator Jackie Speier is appointed to replace Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush. Shelley vacates his Democratic Assembly seat for Speier’s. Then one of four likely Asian American candidates takes Shelley’s seat.
Supervisors Mabel Teng, Michael Yaki, Leland Yee, or Superior Court Judge Lillian Sing have contemplated or have run for office in the district, which is 45 percent Asian American.
Before 2002, the Democratic poobahs face the reapportionment paradox of simultaneously preserving the “safe” Democratic seat that is 57 percent Democratic and 16 percent Republican, while creating an Asian American seat, whose API constituents are not so Democrat.
That seat is key to continuing that Democratic Party’s majority in the State Assembly. Once the census is complete, reapportionment could keep the district and the state Assembly in Democratic hands for the next ten years. Reapportionment also provides the opportunity to create an API seat for the next ten years also.
Given population dynamics, reapportioned 12th district lines have a chance of migrating further south into Daly City, which if 49 percent API, and solidifying it as a very API district for the decade to come.
THE DEMOCRATIC SHUFFLE: APIs don’t yet have a place in the backroom of the Democratic establishment. During the 1990s era of term limits, the Democratic establishment paved its way for an orderly succession. Both Carole Migden and Kevin Shelley respectively succeeded Willie Brown and John Burton in their 13th and 12th state Assembly seats. Meanwhile, Jackie Speier and John Burton became San Francisco’s State Senators without any competition.
The same delegation faces key decisions in 2002 and 2003. Migden and Shelley will be termed out, and Mayor Willie Brown will conclude his last term.
If the Democrats are out of power in Congress, then septuagenarian Congressman Tom Lantos may retire, and Pelosi may return to succeed Brown.
Uncontested, the high powered delegation is represented in Sacramento by Shelley as Assembly majority leader, Burton as president of the state Senate, and Migden as chair of the appropriations committee. In Washington, Nancy Pelosi is on the verge of becoming majority whip if Democrats retake the Congress, a likely possibility if San Jose’s (15th District) Mike Honda and three other Democrats take away Republican seats in California this November.
ELECTING API NO GUARANTEE: However, high API population doesn’t guarantee election for a Yee, Teng, Sing or Yaki. A number of factors work against the election of an API Assembly member.
The district has the highest API voter registration growth for an Assembly district. In fact, registration doubled from 1990 to 1998, according to a study by a Assembly Republicans last year.
However, the political power of Asian Americans remains weak, making up just one-fifth of the over 200,000 voters in the district, which covers the Richmond/Sunset, West of Twin Peaks/Lake Merced, OMI/Excelsior, Diamond Heights, Visitacion Valley/Portola, and a sliver of Daly City.
Moreover, API political power was further weakened last week by the U.S. Supreme Court decision to invalidate the open primary system. As a result, only registered Democrats will decide on the Democratic nominee for state Assembly. In effect, that left about 16,000 Asian American Democrats among 114,000 total Democrats in the district.
API voter behavior might not make the district “safe” for a Democrat, since 60 percent of the district’s Chinese American voters is registered independent or Republican. That group have become the “swing vote”, and it has to potential to make the district much less Democratic.
Such a scenario opens the possibility of an independent (like Quentin Kopp in 1986 for state Senate) succeeding in a politically conservative-to-moderate district relative to liberal San Francisco.
In 1991, an overwhelming number of API voters helped swing conservative Police Chief Frank Jordan’s narrow upset over liberal incumbent Art Agnos. In 1999, those voters were part of a conservative and moderate bloc that was key to re-electing liberal incumbent Mayor Willie Brown.
POWs Waiting for Apologies
(in National News)
API Advisory Commission Visits S.F.
(in Bay Area News)
Asian Food Markets in the Bay Area
(in Business)
Lampo Leong's Forces • Contemplation
(in A&E)
Reasons to Celebrate
(in Opinion)
Political Potstickers
| POWs Waiting for Apologies (in National News) API Advisory Commission Visits S.F. Asian Food Markets in the Bay Area Lampo Leong's Forces • Contemplation Reasons to Celebrate |
Part I: Playing Political Chairs
By Samson Wong
CLAIMING THE ASIAN SEAT: What is currently Kevin Shelley’s political home, the 12th Assembly District, could be home to an Asian American successor to represent the most Asian American district in the state in 2002 when he terms out.
Or, it could happen this year in a special election. The scenario: State Senator Jackie Speier is appointed to replace Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush. Shelley vacates his Democratic Assembly seat for Speier’s. Then one of four likely Asian American candidates takes Shelley’s seat.
Supervisors Mabel Teng, Michael Yaki, Leland Yee, or Superior Court Judge Lillian Sing have contemplated or have run for office in the district, which is 45 percent Asian American.
Before 2002, the Democratic poobahs face the reapportionment paradox of simultaneously preserving the “safe” Democratic seat that is 57 percent Democratic and 16 percent Republican, while creating an Asian American seat, whose API constituents are not so Democrat.
That seat is key to continuing that Democratic Party’s majority in the State Assembly. Once the census is complete, reapportionment could keep the district and the state Assembly in Democratic hands for the next ten years. Reapportionment also provides the opportunity to create an API seat for the next ten years also.
Given population dynamics, reapportioned 12th district lines have a chance of migrating further south into Daly City, which if 49 percent API, and solidifying it as a very API district for the decade to come.
THE DEMOCRATIC SHUFFLE: APIs don’t yet have a place in the backroom of the Democratic establishment. During the 1990s era of term limits, the Democratic establishment paved its way for an orderly succession. Both Carole Migden and Kevin Shelley respectively succeeded Willie Brown and John Burton in their 13th and 12th state Assembly seats. Meanwhile, Jackie Speier and John Burton became San Francisco’s State Senators without any competition.
The same delegation faces key decisions in 2002 and 2003. Migden and Shelley will be termed out, and Mayor Willie Brown will conclude his last term.
If the Democrats are out of power in Congress, then septuagenarian Congressman Tom Lantos may retire, and Pelosi may return to succeed Brown.
Uncontested, the high powered delegation is represented in Sacramento by Shelley as Assembly majority leader, Burton as president of the state Senate, and Migden as chair of the appropriations committee. In Washington, Nancy Pelosi is on the verge of becoming majority whip if Democrats retake the Congress, a likely possibility if San Jose’s (15th District) Mike Honda and three other Democrats take away Republican seats in California this November.
ELECTING API NO GUARANTEE: However, high API population doesn’t guarantee election for a Yee, Teng, Sing or Yaki. A number of factors work against the election of an API Assembly member.
The district has the highest API voter registration growth for an Assembly district. In fact, registration doubled from 1990 to 1998, according to a study by a Assembly Republicans last year.
However, the political power of Asian Americans remains weak, making up just one-fifth of the over 200,000 voters in the district, which covers the Richmond/Sunset, West of Twin Peaks/Lake Merced, OMI/Excelsior, Diamond Heights, Visitacion Valley/Portola, and a sliver of Daly City.
Moreover, API political power was further weakened last week by the U.S. Supreme Court decision to invalidate the open primary system. As a result, only registered Democrats will decide on the Democratic nominee for state Assembly. In effect, that left about 16,000 Asian American Democrats among 114,000 total Democrats in the district.
API voter behavior might not make the district “safe” for a Democrat, since 60 percent of the district’s Chinese American voters is registered independent or Republican. That group have become the “swing vote”, and it has to potential to make the district much less Democratic.
Such a scenario opens the possibility of an independent (like Quentin Kopp in 1986 for state Senate) succeeding in a politically conservative-to-moderate district relative to liberal San Francisco.
In 1991, an overwhelming number of API voters helped swing conservative Police Chief Frank Jordan’s narrow upset over liberal incumbent Art Agnos. In 1999, those voters were part of a conservative and moderate bloc that was key to re-electing liberal incumbent Mayor Willie Brown.
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