Mon 21 Jan 2008
On Feb. 5, California has a rare opportunity to play a significant role in the presidential primary races.
Asian American and Pacific Islanders, the second largest ethnic community in California, will be courted like never before. The same goes for other states with a high concentration of AAPI voters, such as New York, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Nevada, and of course, Hawai‘i.
I have been following the top three Democratic presidential campaigns — Clinton, Edwards and Obama — with great interest. Each candidate’s platform shares the same commitment to specific issues of concern to the AAPI, whether it be the Iraq war crisis, the economy, diversity within the administration, immigration reform, family reunification, education, affordable health care, or hate crimes and racial profiling. The candidates’ approaches to these issues vary, but their end goals are the same.