VNese vote strays from GOP (fwd)

[Alexander H L Vu <vuh000@mail.Uni-Mainz.DE>]

Can anybody tell me why the GOP is the Republican?

Lam
---------- Forwarded message ----------

San Jose Mercury News
   
   Published Sunday, September 19, 1999, in the San Jose Mercury News 
   
Vietnamese vote strays from GOP

   Newcomers show less party loyalty
   
   BY KEN MCLAUGHLIN
   Mercury News Staff Writer
   
   Because of their staunch anti-communism and unswerving loyalty to the
   Republican Party, Vietnamese refugees have long been dubbed the
   ``Cuban-Americans of California.''
   
   But a new analysis of California voter registration data has uncovered
   a striking trend: Vietnamese-Americans are beginning to abandon the
   GOP in favor of the Democratic Party or no party at all.
   
   And although the trend isn't as dramatic, Chinese-American voters --
   the only other major Asian-American group that has favored the GOP --
   are beginning to register more often as Democrats or decline to state
   a party preference.
   
   In Santa Clara County, home to the second-largest Vietnamese emigre
   community in the country, more new Vietnamese-American voters
   registered as Democrats than Republicans in the past three years, says
   American Data Management Inc., a Santa Clara firm that sells
   voter-registration data to political campaigns nationwide.
   
   Last year, 33 percent of new Vietnamese-American voters in the county
   registered Democratic vs. 27.9 percent Republican. That contrasts
   sharply with the early 1990s, when there were three
   Vietnamese-American Republicans registered to vote for every Democrat.
   
   ``You're kidding? That's amazing!'' said Minh Dovan of San Jose, a
   Vietnamese-American attorney who has been a registered Democrat for
   almost three decades.
   
   ``At one time, the community considered people who were Democrats
   communist sympathizers,'' said Dovan, 48. ``So you kept quiet.''
   
   New Chinese-American voters, traditionally Republican but much less so
   than Vietnamese-Americans, are also now registering more as Democrats
   -- with a huge percentage of those new voters declining to identify
   with either party.
   
   Political analysts attribute the trend to two main reasons: the
   growing assimilation of Vietnamese- and Chinese-Americans, and a
   perceived ``anti-immigrant'' GOP attitude that began with former Gov.
   Pete Wilson's push to pass Proposition 187, the 1994 ballot initiative
   that sought to cut off public benefits to illegal immigrants. The
   measure fueled a national debate on immigration and resulted in
   federal legislation two years later that cut off most public aid to
   legal immigrants who weren't yet citizens.
   
   ``For the Asian-American community, 1996 was a huge turning point,''
   said Daphne Kwok, executive director of the non-partisan Organization
   of Chinese Americans. ``The community realized these were Republican
   bills that were mean-spirited -- not only anti-immigrant but also
   anti-American.''
   
   The trend has significant political ramifications. If it continues,
   the Asian-American vote could become another large Democratic bloc of
   minority voters, as are Latinos and African-Americans. Until now,
   Japanese-Americans, Filipino-Americans and Korean-Americans have voted
   Democratic -- only to be ``canceled out'' by Vietnamese-Americans and
   Chinese-Americans voting Republican.
   
   Asian-Americans make up 3.5 percent of California's registered voters,
   but that percentage is growing rapidly as immigrants become citizens.
   In Santa Clara County, Asian-Americans already represent 9 percent of
   voters.
   
   American Data Management, which scrutinizes ethnic voting trends for
   Democratic campaigns, has developed a computerized list of 38,000
   ethnic surnames. At the request of the Mercury News, the firm analyzed
   data on new Vietnamese- and Chinese-American voters statewide.
   
   The analysis of the past three years found that in Santa Clara County
   and statewide, Vietnamese- and Chinese-American voters registered
   slightly more Democratic than Republican, with a burgeoning number
   declining to state a political preference. The new registrations have
   greatly narrowed a huge GOP-Democratic gap among Vietnamese-Americans
   and nearly wiped out a smaller one among Chinese-Americans.
   
   The GOP still holds a lead among Vietnamese- and Chinese-American
   voters in Santa Clara County and statewide. But Democratic and
   Republican registration among Chinese-Americans statewide is now
   almost equal -- 31.7 percent Republican vs. 29 percent Democratic.
   Vietnamese-Americans statewide are now registered 40.4 percent
   Republican and 29.2 percent Democratic.
   
   The first wave of Vietnamese emigres came to the United States in 1975
   after South Vietnam fell to the Communists. Many were members of
   Saigon's elite -- top military officers and others with close ties to
   the U.S. government.
   
   Warming to the GOP
   
   When the emigres began becoming citizens in the early 1980s, Ronald
   Reagan was president. Reagan, a longtime Cold Warrior, was viewed as
   the perfect commander in chief. So the overwhelming majority of the
   emigres signed on with the GOP.
   
   ``No party could ever maintain those kinds of lopsided numbers,'' said
   Michael Schroeder, past chairman of the state Republican Party. ``As
   Vietnamese-Americans move out from Little Saigon to the suburbs,
   they're just becoming more politically diverse.''
   
   Take the case of Huan Vu, a San Jose software developer who had fled
   South Vietnam with his family in 1975 at age 10.
   
   When Vu registered as a Democrat in 1996, he broke with the Republican
   tradition in his family.
   
   ``I'm basically very Americanized, and I just feel that the Democrats
   better represent my social philosophy,'' said Vu, 34. ``In general, I
   like what they represent as far as higher spending for education,
   social services and health care.''
   
   Mike Madrid, a GOP analyst in Sacramento who was Schroeder's political
   director, noted that a similar phenomenon is evident even in south
   Florida, where assimilation of Cuban-Americans into the American
   mainstream has undercut the near-unanimity of their vote.
   
   ``The Republicans used to get 75 to 80 percent of the Cuban-American
   presidential vote,'' Madrid said. ``But Clinton managed to get nearly
   50 percent in 1996.''
   
   Bob Mulholland, campaign adviser to the California Democratic Party,
   said party officials launched a plan to attract voters like Vu in
   1992, when candidate Bill Clinton met with Vietnamese-American leaders
   in Orange County's Little Saigon.
   
   ``That was the first time we had broken through the glass wall,''
   Mulholland said.
   
   ``In the case of both Chinese- and Vietnamese-Americans, a lot of
   people ran from persecution from communists, so they registered as far
   away from the Communist Party as possible -- and that was the
   Republican Party,'' said Democrat Paul Fong, a Chinese-American
   political science professor at Evergreen Valley College. ``But the
   American experience for Asian-Americans also includes prejudice and
   discrimination, and the Democratic Party has been lot more responsive
   to them. They see the Democrats as the party of diversity.''
   
   Growing disagreement
   
   Barry Chang, a Cupertino real estate agent, said he's come to agree
   with Fong.
   
   Chang, 47, said he had joined the Republican Party after he became a
   citizen in 1985 because he saw it as more anti-communist and
   pro-business. In recent years, though, the Taiwanese immigrant began
   to realize he disagreed with Republicans on most issues -- from gun
   control to abortion to school vouchers.
   
   He decided to try to make the party more moderate and open to
   diversity from within. He even ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the
   county's Republican Central Committee. Eventually, he gave up in
   frustration. ``I just figure it's better to switch than to fight,''
   Chang said.
   
   Chang, a Cupertino school trustee, said that when he filed for
   re-election in late July, he registered as a Democrat.
   
   Chinese-American Lester Lee, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, agreed
   that ``there is a perception that the Democrats care more for the
   minority groups.'' But Lee, a registered independent who usually votes
   Republican, argued that California Republicans simply need to promote
   themselves better.
   
   Lee said most Asian-American voters are moderates at heart, one reason
   so many Chinese- and Vietnamese-Americans decline to state a party
   preference.
   
   In Santa Clara County in 1998, 53.4 percent of new Chinese-American
   voters chose not to list a party preference, compared with 34.6
   percent of new Vietnamese-American voters and 26.2 percent of all new
   voters.
   
   Schroeder concedes the 1996 welfare bill wounded the GOP badly in
   Asian immigrant communities. ``It was one of the dumbest things the
   Republican Congress has ever done,'' said Schroeder, who as state
   party chairman in 1998 helped run a campaign to line up ethnic votes
   for the GOP.
   
   But Schroeder believes the Republican Congress regained support among
   immigrant groups by restoring Supplemental Security Income to legal
   immigrants who'd been in the country before the welfare bill was
   signed.
   
   ``The issue is not going to be forgotten, but it will be a less
   driving issue,'' he said.
   
   Madrid, too, maintains that once the sting of the party's past
   immigration stances wears off, Asian-Americans will return to the GOP.
   
   ``Vietnamese who came here in the '70s were not interested in a
   capital gains tax cut. They were interested in stopping communism,''
   he said. ``But their kids are interested in the tax cut.''
   
   To some extent, Madrid said, ``Asian-Americans embody the emerging New
   Economy worker. They're interested in tort reform, allowing more
   high-tech workers to come into this country, improving higher
   education.''
   
   Schroeder agreed. ``Most Asian-American communities are socially
   conservative and very libertarian in not wanting the government
   involved in their business,'' he said.
   
   But Mulholland contends that more Asian-Americans will continue
   turning away from a party they see as led by ``mostly white, older
   fellows who are affluent and a little bit selfish.''