A Big Day in Vietnamese-American Politics
I do not buy into the idea of Barack Obama’s election marking our country’s entrance into post-racial politics. But I am always heartened when related thresholds are crossed, whether it is an African-American to the presidency or an Indian-American to the short list of 2012 GOP nominees. I still think the best thing we can do to improve life in America is get more Americans to vote and I believe that the political success of the previously disfranchised can help boost participation.
So I was happy to see two stories today about Vietnamese-American political accomplishments, even if Republicans are the party that are benefiting most directly. First, My-Thuan Tran of the Los Angeles Times reports on the Vietnamese-American political coming of age in Orange County:
Sixteen years ago, a 56-year-old Vietnamese refugee canvassed the streets of a conservative Orange County city with red, white and blue campaign posters.
A diminutive man with a showman’s personality, Tony Lam became the first Vietnamese American in the country elected to public office. At a time when Vietnamese refugees were still reshaping the strawberry and bean fields of Westminster into the streets of Little Saigon, Lam was the lone Vietnamese face in the world of American politics.
And for nearly a decade, he remained the sole Vietnamese person to hold that distinction.
Not anymore.
There are now 10 Vietnamese Americans from Orange County who have been elected to school boards, city councils, the county Board of Supervisors and the state Assembly.
And this week, after the last of the absentee ballots had been counted, Westminster — a blue-collar town that recoiled when the first waves of refugees moved in 33 years ago — became the first city in the nation with a majority Vietnamese American city council.
Meanwhile, Michelle Krupa and Frank Donze of The Times-Picayune report on the defeat of the Democratic congressman perhaps best known for having been caught by federal agents with $90,000 in his freezer:
Indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson suffered what may be the final blow of his storied political career in the most improbable way Saturday, when an untested Republican opponent took advantage of Louisiana’s new federal voting rules — and an election delay caused by Hurricane Gustav — to unseat the nine-term Democrat.
With the upset victory, Anh “Joseph” Cao, a eastern New Orleans attorney who fled war-ravaged Saigon as a child, becomes the first Vietnamese-American in Congress. He will represent a district that was specifically drawn to give African-Americans an electoral advantage and one in which two of every three voters are registered Democrats.
