Making their voices heard

In the Orange County Register this morning there was a story about Asian-American politicians getting more involved and winning elections. From the story:

The Nov. 7 election featured the highest number of Asian-American candidates in the county’s history, political observers say. Of the 28 candidates who ran in city council, school board and other races, 13 emerged victorious.

Not only are the numbers record-breaking, but they reflect a trend and a “political coming of age” for Asian-American voters and politicians, sad Duc Nguyen, program manager for the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance. “People are beginning to realize that it can be done,” Nguyen said. “And they are also starting to realize the importance of civic participation and representation.”

To anyone that celebrates diversity and strives for equal racial representation, this is good news.

The story starts by spotlighting Henry Charoen, the mayor pro tem in La Palma, and the country’s first Thai-American city council member. Even though Charoen is not a Democrat, his story is an inspiring one.

The 33-year-old Charoen, who works as a health care business manager, said he is the first Asian-American in 10 years to be elected to the council of a city that is about half Asian.

“It’s taken us several decades to get to this point,” the La Palma councilman said. “And there is still room for a lot more improvement and progress.”

Out of the 13 newly-elected Asian-Americans in Orange County mentioned above, less than half of them are Democrats. Equal representation to ethnic minorities is a great thing; the next step is to get minorities elected that equally represent the voter registration of our county. I would really like to see a strong Democratic Asian-American voter’s alliance put together to combat some of the Van Tran puppets that are getting elected with Tran’s support and cash.

[Orange County Register]