III. The Fruits of Political Empowerment
| Date
of Call to Action |
Purpose
(PP) & Method (MD) |
Date
Result(s) Achieved |
| On September 21, 80-20 urged our supporters to
lobby President Bush and 4 Senators he is consulting on SCJ nominees. |
PP: To put the names
of 5 qualified AsAm jurists into the minds of the most influential
people in the SCJ nomination process. MD:
80-20 sent a mass e-mail urging supporters to fax
and e-mail the President and 4 Senators. |
Two days after 80-20's call to action, between
500 to 1000 faxes went to each Senator or the President, tying up
their lines with so many faxes. Through this effort, we've planted
the seeds for increased representation of AsAms in the Federal Judiciary. |
| On September 6, in response to
the recent Supreme Court opening, 80-20 asked Asian American activists
whether we should push for an AsAm SCJ and which qualified AsAm jurists
nominees should be lobbied for. |
PP:
To gauge whether there was enough support in the community
to undertake the difficult task of pushing for an AsAm SCJ.
MD: 80-20 sends an
invitation to take a poll to 15,000 activists, asking for response
from at least 3,000 or no go. |
One week after 80-20's call
to take our poll, over 3,000 out of the 15,000 responded positively.
They selected 5 potential nominees and pledged their personal effort
to the battle. |
| December 27, 2000 |
PP: To urge President-elect
Bush to appoint APAs to his cabinet.
MD: a) A deluge of
e-mails from 80-20 supporters to the Transition Office, and b) numerous
calls from reporters, both mainstream & ethnic, to Bush's office
about the lack of an APA appointment. |
December 29, 2000: N. Mineta is first contacted
by V.P. Cheney for an appointment to the Dept of Transportation
.
January 12, 2001: Pres. Bush announces the historic
appointment of 2 APA cabinet secretaries, perhaps aiming to outbid
the Democrats for APA votes in 2004 |
| June 24, 2000 |
PP:
Urge Pres. Clinton to nominate Norm Mineta as the historic
first APA cabinet secretary.
MD: Massive fax campaign
to the White House – so many faxes went in that the White
House fax machines ran out of paper. |
June 29, 2000: President Clinton
nominates Norman Mineta as the Sec. of Commerce. |
| 80-20's Policy fighting racist attacks against APA politicians |
PP: To STOP racist
attacks against Asian American political candidates.
MD: 80-20 pledges
to use its considerable communication powers and financial resources
to defeat any politicians who initiate racist attacks against APA
candidates and to drive the consultants who design such racist attacks
out of business. |
No racist attacks in 2003 and 2004 election.
|
May 1, 2002: 80-20 announces
its policy to stop racist attacks against APA
candidates, in response to 2 such reported attacks in the CA primaries.
It publicizes the Alameda County Board of Supervisors primary, in
which
Ralph Appezzato attacked Alice Lai-Bitker by asking: What color is
your supervisor?" and "Is it us or them?" |
PP:
To STOP racist attacks against APA political candidates
MD: 80-20 pledges
to use its considerable communication power and financial resources
to defeat any politicians who initiate racist attacks against APA
candidates and drive the consultants who design such attacks out
of business. |
In the 2002 general election, Ralph Appezzato
is defeated by Alice Lai-Bitker in a run-off.
No other racist attack has occurred, except a state representative
race in
Iowa. In this case, the Iowa Republican Party withdrew financial
and publicity support for Kim Balderston, who insinuated that her
Indian-American opponent Swati Dandekar was unfit for legislative
duty because of her foreign upbringing. Dandekar won.
|
