Asian Americans for Obama is a grassroots organization founded to help organize the Asian American community to elect Senator Barack Obama the next President of the United States
California DNC member Kamil Hasan released the following statement
today endorsing Barack Obama for President:
“I am endorsing Senator Obama as Democratic Party’s
nominee not only because he has clearly won more pledged delegates, but I
sincerely believe that he can provide the necessary leadership in taking
this country in a new direction at this critical juncture in our
history. Fortunately, we have had two excellent candidates. I have great
admiration for Senator Clinton and the way she has run a spirited, high energy,
issues based campaign. I am looking forward to continue to energize the
Indo-American and the South-Asian communities in ensuring that Senator Obama becomes
the next President of the United
States. His election as the President
of the United States will
not only help unite a very divided nation, but elevate the image of the United States
in the world to a level not seen since John Kennedy was the President.”
We've already noted the several dozen new super delegates that announced today, but I wanted to highlight particularly the just-announced endorsement of Bel Leong-Hong of Maryland, Chair of the DNC's AAPI Caucus.
As a champion for AAPI issues, Bel released the following statement:
I’m endorsing Barack Obama today because I believe he is
the strongest candidate for the Asian-American and Pacific Islander
community and he understands that it’s time for AAPI
issues—immigration, education, and small business policy, for
example—to be discussed on the national stage. And as someone who has
lived in AAPI and international communities, I know he shares our
unwavering belief in America as a land of prosperity and opportunity
for all.
Obama has shown a remarkable ability to bring people
together, and I know that Democrats will unite behind him to take on
John McCain and stand up for a new direction for this country.
I
look forward to working with Senator Obama and his campaign to actively
engage our Asian American and Pacific Islander community in the general
election. Our community is actively participating in this exciting
election and will be a critical, swing-vote constituency contributing
to a historic democratic victory in November.
Asian Americans are making a difference this election cycle, and we will continue to make our voices heard. Thanks, Bel!
The slow but steady trickle of super delegates announcing for Obama over the last several weeks has finally, as predicted, become a flood. In anticipation of tonight's final primaries in Montana and South Dakota and recognizing that Obama is just a few delegates away from clinching the nomination, numerous super delegates have announced for Obama today. Several more have already announced their intention to declare tomorrow and in the days to come, and many others will probably do so as well.
BoBo2020 has a great diary here on the super delegate announcements today that is being regularly updated. Some notable names include former President Jimmy Carter, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the third ranking Democrat in the House, and former Florida Governor and Senator Bob Graham.
In related news, the rumors have been flying back and forth as to what exactly Sen. Clinton will announce tonight in NY. Some say she is going to recognize Obama as the nominee without formally suspending her campaign, while others say she is going to announce her intention to take this contest to the convention. Let us hope for the sake of party unity and the business of defeating Sen. McCain in November that it's along the lines of the former rather than the latter.
Since Tuesday's results further reinforced Sen. Obama's near insurmountable lead in the Democratic contest, superdelegates all over the country have been steadily announcing their support for Obama. In at least one case, Rep. Donald Payne of New Jersey, the superdelegate switched his support from Clinton to Obama. By at least some calculations (notably ABC News), Sen. Obama now leads Sen. Clinton in superdelegates.
Of particular interest and excitement to us here at Asian Americans for Obama is news that Congresswoman Mazie Hirono of Hawaii (one of the first two Buddhists elected to the US Congress, along with Hank Gilbert of Georgia, in 2006) has endorsed Sen. Obama in an announcement today from Washington:
"Today I announce my endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President
of the United States. I do so after watching these historic campaigns
unfold across our country, where hundreds of thousands of people
participated as never before. It is clear that Americans want our
country back on a course of hope and opportunity.
I make my
announcement with deep respect and admiration for Hillary Clinton. She
is an extraordinary woman. However, it is time to unite the party
behind Senator Obama and to use our energy and resources to defeat
Senator John McCain. Barack Obama can unite our Party and our country
and bring about the positive changes Americans want.
Of
course, all of us are especially proud of Senator Obama's deep roots
here in our state, and overwhelmingly embraced his candidacy in our
recent caucus. His love for Hawaii and understanding of its diversity
have given him a foundation for understanding the diversity of our
country.
I am proud to endorse Senator Obama and I look forward to a winning campaign."
Congresswoman Hirono joins fellow Hawaii Congressman and superdelegate Neil Abercrombie in supporting Sen. Obama. You can send a word of appreciation and thanks to Congresswoman Hirono here. You can help with her re-election by visiting her campaign website and signing up to volunteer or give money.
For those of you who stayed up late enough last night to see the final results, you've already known the great news. With Sen. Obama's decisive victory in North Carolina and his amazing comeback to almost beat Sen. Clinton in Indiana, the emerging consensus is that the Democratic nomination contest is essentially over.
There are just a few more hours before the polls close in Indiana and North Carolina. If you're in one of those two states and have not voted yet - get out there before the polls close. Polls close at 6:00 PM in Indiana and 7:30 PM in North Carolina (if you're in line by the closing time, you have the right to vote). As the Supreme Court's decision recently reminded us, Indiana has a stringent voter ID law, so remember to bring valid identification. The Obama campaign has more info here on what to bring to the polls in Indiana. (And here for North Carolina.)
If you're not in those two states or have already voted, we need your help to get out the vote for Barack! The Indiana offices are calling all volunteers to get to their local office and help make phone calls and turn out our voters.
We're also less than 35,000 calls away from 1,000,000 supporter calls to voters. Visit the online phone banking page to help meet this historic goal.
With the last village in, Sen. Obama has officially won Guam's party caucus (which operates more like a primary in many ways) with 2,264 votes to Clinton's 2,257. The newly elected party chair and vice chair team of Pilar Lujan and Jaime Paulino will also be superdelegates for Obama.
Guam has 8 pledged delegates with half a vote each. I don't have the official breakdown yet, but Obama and Clinton will likely split the pledged delegates with Obama picking up two overall with the superdelegates from Guam included.
Thanks so much to all the volunteers from all over who took time to help call Guam, and special thanks to Ria Baldevia who helped set up the easy to use calling tool (and helped open the first ever presidential campaign office in Guam).
According to supporter Grande Lum, "The campaign ran ads and Barack did a radio interview in Guam yesterday
and emphasized that he will address the special concerns of the
Chamorro people." To hear his interview, entitled 'Sen. Obama Supports Guam’s Quest for Self-Determination,' visit this link.
With 115 pledged delegates, North Carolina is the biggest state remaining on the Democratic primary calendar. A strong victory there on Tuesday, May 6, would virtually guarantee Sen. Obama a pledged delegate lead at the end of the primary season, not to mention erase any gains made by Sen. Clinton in Pennsylvania.
Polling has consistently shown Sen. Obama in the lead, but with aggressive campaigning in the final days, the gap is closing and Sen. Clinton will continue to do everything she can to remain in this race. As in so many other states, this one is going to come down to the organization and ground game, and our folks need your help! Sign up today to volunteer in North Carolina! Visit http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/cometonc to provide your information to the campaign, and a local organizer in NC will get in touch with you on details, including transportation and housing.
If you can't make it to North Carolina in person, your help is still needed to phone bank from home. The North Carolina team has set up a great online tool to let you call from home at http://my.barackobama.com/ncvols. By making just 50 calls (takes about 2 hours), we can give the team on the ground a huge boost before election day on May 6. Let's get out there and win this one for Obama, and then on to victory in November!
Today, April 29, is the last day to register to vote (or change your party affiliation to Democrat) in order to be eligible to participate in the Oregon Democratic primary on May 20.
Anyone who is a resident of Oregon and will be 18 years old on or before May 20, 2008, can register for the primary. Remember, Oregon is a completely vote by mail system, so you must re-register if your permanent or mailing address has changed since you last registered. You should also re-register if you have not voted for the last five years or more. Oregon is a CLOSED primary, meaning that only people registered as Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary, so voters should also check to make sure they have the correct party registration by today.
If you're already registered, you can help make sure others are registered by the deadline today by helping to call Oregon residents using the campaign's online Oregon phone banking tool.
We're working with the Obama Guam Coordinator Ria Baldevia and calling people in Guam right now. Ria has created a great script for the calls, so it is very easy to make the calls. If you have AT&T or Sprint wireless, nationwide plans include Guam. AT&T and other landline nationwide plans include Guam as well. Guam is 18 hours ahead of the pacific time zone, so best times to call will be between 3 pm -3 am pacific daylight time (9am-9pm Guam time).
If you are interested in helping out, please let Grande know at grande@accordence.com or 650-340-9150. We basically need volunteer callers between now and Friday May 2 (which is May 3 in Guam). Please do forward this to others who may be interested as well.
Casperr, a Daily Kos diarist, has given our Philly grassroots team a terrific shout out by posting a diary about the diverse group of volunteers that worked out of the Chinatown office the last couple of days.
Again, a big thanks to our very own Nina Ahmad, Matt Chea, and Anna Perng who have been leading the grassroots effort our in Philly (and are pictured in the diary), as well as the inestimable Van Tamom, Pennsylvania AAPI Outreach Director for the Obama campaign, who I had the distinct pleasure of working with in Texas. Connecticut State Rep. Bill Tong was also on hand to help campaign for Sen. Obama.
Let's help our folks in PA make the final push! Make calls today through the online phone banking tool! Show Obama that AAPIs support him by making a contribution through the Asian Americans for Obama MyBO page.
Here's a cool photo of Anna at the Chinatown Office from casperr's post:
Obama for America is thrilled to offer a unique internship experience to students across the country!
Where? Pittsburgh, PA When? Friday, April 18 - Tuesday, April 22 What? Join in the thrilling final days of the Obama campaign in Pennsylvania!
If you can arrange for travel and can stay until Tuesday at 9:00 PM, th campaign will provide housing at no cost to you.
If
you've been with the campaign in other states, you know that your
experience will be unforgettable. If you've been meaning to get
involved but haven't yet, your moment is now.
1. Name 2. School (Name, city, state) 2. E-mail address 3. Cell phone 4. When can you arrive in Pittsburgh? 5. Will you have a car? 6. Emergency contact (Name, number)
Yesterday, March 29, 284 district conventions were held across the State of Texas. On March 4, precinct conventions elected delegates to the district conventions, who then, in turn, elected delegates to the state convention yesterday. Since the Texas Democratic Party chose to stop compiling and reporting precinct convention results with less than half of the results in, no one really knew who won the Texas Caucus or by how much until after the district conventions.
With 56.34% of the conventions reporting, comprising 86.51% of the state delegates, Sen. Obama leads 55.91% to 44.09%, with 3,708 delegates to Clinton's 2,924 delegates. The biggest chunk of outstanding delegates will come from the two districts in Collin County (Plano, McKinney, Frisco), which had to hold their convention today because they could not book a large enough venue for Saturday. Collin County, a suburban Dallas county, went strongly for Obama on March 4. Projections indicate Obama will net 9 delegates from the Caucus, as previously predicted by CNN and others. With Clinton's net of 4 delegates from the Texas primary, this confirms Obama's overall win by 5 delegates. For updated results, visit Burnt Orange Report's report.
For those of you in Texas, the Democratic County Conventions will be taking place this Saturday, March 29. Contact your county party for information on location, or see this Burnt Orange Report post for more information. Make sure to check the comments section for updates to the list. You can also visit http://texansforobama.com for the latest news. Detailed info on trainings, procedures, etc. is also available from the campaign here. You can also RSVP through that site so the campaign knows if you are coming or if an alternate needs to be contacted.
If you were selected as a delegate at your precinct convention, it is IMPERATIVE that you attend your county convention. Obama will lose any delegates that do not show up, and because of Texas' unique delegate system, the caucus delegates can shift at the county conventions based on voting. This means that we can gain additional delegates at the county conventions, but we can also LOSE delegates. Right now, Obama is narrowly winning Texas' delegates, but that could change without a strong showing.
Kath25 of Daily Kos has written an excellent guide to how to work your county convention this Saturday. Click here to read more.
To ensure that Sen. Obama maintains his delegate lead in Texas, we must ensure that ALL of the Obama delegates from the precinct conventions attend their county conventions on Saturday, March 29. If a delegate is a no show, Sen. Obama loses that delegate for the purposes of electing the next round of delegates to the state convention.
Volunteers are needed to contact
every single Barack Obama precinct delegate and alternate before next
Saturday's county conventions. Towards that end, on Saturday at 1 PM
(tomorrow, 3/22) we will all be meeting at Scholz Garten for a
postcard making party.
We have a huge opportunity to win Texas
over the next 8 days, and it all starts tomorrow--but we can only do it
if people step up one last time.
What: March Madness Postcard Making Party! Where: Scholtz Garten on the corner of 17th and San Jacinto When: 1 PM, Saturday 3/22 Who: All BO supporters in Austin!
See you all there! If you have any questions, shoot an email to Menno at mgoedman@barackobama.com.
In addition to Obama's delegate win in TX, another story ignored by much of the press is Obama's 4 delegate pick-up in the final, certified results of the California primary.
Add the above data to all the polling that has been done lately of the McCain versus Obama or Clinton match ups, and I think it's pretty easy to conclude which candidate is not only stronger in November, but will bring more new voters into the Party.
Today, we saw another example of Obama's coattails after his campaigning on behalf of physicist Bill Foster led to Foster's 52-48 victory over Jim Oberweis in a special election for former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert's seat.
Tomorrow is the big day. I'll be going to my precinct convention (and dragging some friends along to make sure they caucus for Obama). I anticipate a crazy scene, but I also know that it will be an amazing, unprecedented (for me at least) demonstration of the power of American democracy. With record turnout expected and a sunny day in the high 60s, expect long lines of people eager to vote. Even though the precinct conventions are slated to start at 7:15 PM, under the rules, they can't start until everyone is done voting. Since everyone in line at 7 pm must be allowed to vote, it's very likely we won't start the conventions until after 8 PM.
However, this means that folks who will be arriving to caucus at 7 PM may have to wait two or three hours for the process to conclude. This also means that it's up to the Obama precinct captains, supporters, and volunteers to ensure that Obama supporters do NOT leave until they've officially signed in for Obama at the convention. We have to keep people fired up, ready to go for as long as it takes, even if that means waiting around for two-three hours for the convention to start. What we don't want is people to get bored or frustrated or confused and leave before the convention starts after 8 or 9 o'clock rolls around and primary voters are still voting. So Obama supporters! Bring games, sing songs, do whatever you need to keep people entertained and engaged so that when the critical time comes, Texans will stand up for change and stand up for Obama.
Today, I had the tremendous pleasure of seeing Michelle Obama at the UT campus Obama office. As reports have said, she is an amazing speaker. Barack moves me and inspires me and energizes me in speeches, and there have definitely been things that have come out of this campaign and its grassroots supporters that have made me choke up a little, but Michelle really made me tear up. The passion and emotion with which she talked about our responsibility and our duty to children everywhere, to show them the possibilities, to validate their hope in something better for themselves, really just touched me deeply. She left the room incredibly fired up and ready to win it for Obama and even more importantly, ready to take responsibility for our communities and our country. I can see why she's called "the closer." Thanks to some patience, I also got to meet her and get my shirt (thanks, Claire and Covenant Green!) autographed.
Tuesday, March 4 is election day in Texas! This is going to be the first time in decades that Texas will experience such a historic primary contest. This also means that no one knows exactly what will happen and how smoothly things will run. Texas' unique hybrid primary/caucus system will be put to the first real test. This means that voter education is vital. Below are some important resources.
Voting is 7 AM to 7 PM. The precinct convention (caucus) begins at 7 PM at your polling place (but cannot start until primary voting is fully concluded, so be prepared to wait for the convention to start). Since the rules call for those present at 7:15 PM to be permitted to sign in for their candidate, make sure you are there by that time even if it looks like the caucus won't start for a while. Clinton's folks are advising their supporters to be there at 6:30 PM.
These last few weeks have been heady indeed for us Obama supporters.
With 11 straight primary wins, momentum seems to be on our side. But
let us not forget the lessons of New Hampshire, Nevada, and many other
campaigns that faltered because of overconfidence.
The latest Zogby and Belo tracking polls
have Clinton gaining ground on Obama. The Real Clear Politics average
is down to an Obama lead of just 0.8 points. The tracking polls show
Clinton gaining ground among Latinos, where Obama was making inroads
lately, and among those who state the most important aspect of the race
is whether the candidate understands people like me.
Now, as many observers have noted, this mostly emphasizes the
unpredictable and very close nature of the race. But as supporters, we
cannot and must not allow our confidence to lead to complacency. New
Hampshire reminded us what happens when people believe a victory is in
the bag. Nevada reminded us that even in a caucus, Clinton's operation
can outmaneuver us if we are not prepared. Recent reports have come
out about Clinton's caucus handbook instructing supporters to arrive at
caucus locations at 6:30 or even earlier to ensure control of the
proceedings. As a volunteer in Nevada, I saw this precise situation
occur, leading many precincts to appear to be under the de facto
control of the Clinton camp.
We have two days before March 4. Regardless of what happens, I
know I don't want to look back at this time and wonder if I could have
done something more, worked just a little bit harder, made just a
little bit more of a difference. I want to know I did all I could do.
This means that if you're thinking about taking a break from
canvassing or phone banking, you might want to think again. If you're
thinking of skipping the caucus because Obama's "ground game" will have
it set, think again. If you're thinking of skipping the reminder to
your friends, family, and colleagues to vote and caucus for Obama,
think again.
Texas will play a big part in the eventual outcome of this
race. But unless we all do everything we can in the last few days,
that part may not be the one we're expecting.
Today was an exhilarating experience, but I am definitely exhausted. I'm going to offer a summary of the day's events and happenings, with pictures and more details to come later.
At around 2 PM, Austin Obama supporter Nita Ngo and I headed over to the pre-debate rally site next to the Rec Sports Center where the debate took place today. When we arrived, there were around 100 Obama supporters with signs, shirts, and buttons, chanting and getting fired up. There were about 20-30 Clinton supporters with pickle bucket drums, whistles, and bullhorns. Despite their smaller numbers, they did make a lot of noise and attract decent attention. Press was already out in force, taking photos, pulling folks out to interview, and taking video. Nita and I met up with Eugenia Beh and we carried our various AAPI themed signs and handed out the great Asian Americans for Obama stickers made for us by Michelle Yuen (thanks Michelle!).
Around 4 PM, Chelsea Clinton led a march of additional Hillary supporters from Red River Cafe to the pre-debate rally site. The meeting place for the Clinton supporters was kind of an odd choice to me; Red River Cafe has no parking, fits about 30 people, and is kind of hard to find. The Clinton group was around 200-300 people.
We were outnumbered for a bit, until our folks arrived in a march from Scholz Biergarten, where the Texans for Obama group has been meeting for months. That added around 750 additional people to our ranks. Our group also made a big impression because they were led by the Reagan High School marching band, as well as the step team and drill team. There was a ton of energy and music and excitement, and we soon dwarfed the Clinton crowd. If you look at pictures, it's a bit deceptive b/c the Hillary folks had assembled TONS of Clinton signs on stakes, and they stood in a line only a couple of people deep, so it appeared to be a sea of Hillary people. Our group covered a much longer, more spread out area, and were several people deep. As with previous experiences in this campaign, the Obama crowd was far more diverse in every way.
I talked to several reporters and a lot of media and supporters took photos of our signs in Korean and Chinese. Some Korean journalists took pictures of me with my Korean Obama sign (good thing they didn't ask me any questions in Korean!). I also led the Obama supporters in both a Chinese cheer (Obama, jia you!) and a Japanese cheer (Obama, gambatte!).
Of the roughly 20,000 Democrats living abroad who cast their vote in the Democrats Abroad primary, Sen. Obama won 65% of the vote, netting him 4.5 delegates in the DA system which awards fractions of delegates. The victory gives him his eleventh in a row since Super Tuesday. DA members could vote by Internet, mail, or in person.
I was actually a member of Democrats Abroad Japan when I lived there from 2002-2003. I wrote an article that year about President Bush's Manichean world view that ended up in the Democrats Abroad newsletter. It may still be floating around in the ether of cyberspace. I don't know if John and Ruth McCreery are still involved, but I got to know them through the organization when I was there and John was serving as DA Japan president. I always hoped to meet them in person, but never had the chance (I lived in a tiny, remote village in the mountains). It's terrific to see such enthusiasm this year even from those living on the other side of the globe.
Today, Sen. Obama received the endorsement of the Honolulu Advertiser. They write:
"There is no single candidate who can possess all the attributes needed
to guide a president through the impossibly complex challenges of that
job. The central question, rather, is which candidate possesses the
qualities that we need most?
The U.S. is a nation at war and in
economic distress. The road back will be a long one, the journey likely
to span more than one presidential tenure. The capacity for hope and
the willingness to change, both rallying cries of the Obama campaign,
are elements critical to that journey.
The Democrats should
recognize that the ability to inspire and to persuade others to follow
is no trivial thing, no superficiality.
It is, in fact, the
critical aspect of leadership required at times like these, when only a
more unified nation can find its way through the difficulties ahead.
The
party needs to acknowledge the clarion call that's resonated through
the past weeks of the presidential campaign. It needs Barack Obama."
Sen. Obama was also endorsed today by the Fort Worth Star Telegram and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, giving Obama the endorsements of the seven largest newspapers in Texas. For links to all seven endorsements, click here.
Sen. Obama has received several more high profile endorsements in Texas and nationally.
In Texas, State Sen. Royce West of Dallas and House Democratic Leader Jim Dunnam of Waco have endorsed Sen. Obama. West's senate district has 6 delegates, among the highest number for a state senate district, and can potentially give Sen. Obama an important lead in candidates to help him win Texas overall. Rep. Dunnam is a hard fighting, passionate veteran legislator in the Texas House of Representatives. He gained a great deal of fame and respect for leading a group of Democratic legislators to Ardmore, OK, to break quorum to prevent Tom Delay's unprecedented mid-decade redistricting plan from being rammed through the Texas legislature by his cronies. Rep. Dunnam also led a bipartisan group of legislators who attempted to remove tyrannical House Speaker Tom Craddick (who was elected through the support of laundered money provided by Tom Delay's TRMPAC) at the end of the 2007 legislative session. This effort was thwarted when Speaker Craddick bizarrely asserted that the Speaker had absolute authority to recognize any motion from the floor and so refused to recognize any motion related to his removal or any motion challenging his refusal to recognize motions.
In addition, Will Wynn, the mayor of my home, Austin, also endorsed Sen. Obama. Mayor Wynn's signature issue has been energy and environmental policy, and he based part of his endorsement decision on Sen. Obama's strong policy on climate change and greenhouse emissions. The very popular Mayor Wynn's endorsement here in Austin will be a great help in winning our Senate District's 8 delegates, the most of any senate district in Texas. Our State Senator, Kirk Watson, has already endorsed Sen. Obama.
Nationally, Sen. Obama won the endorsement of the very influential 1.9 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the United Food and Commercial Workers. According to the AP, "The 1.3-million member UFCW has 69,000 members in Ohio and another
26,000 in Texas. The food workers also have 19,000 members in
Wisconsin, which holds a primary Tuesday." The SEIU's endorsement is somewhat of a surprise, as they originally said last year that they would not endorse.
So when I began working on all this Asian Americans for Obama stuff way back in January 2007, I had no idea that my home state would actually be where this race could be decided. Now that the presidential contest has come to the Lone Star State, I can actually take advantage of some of my own personal knowledge!
So, if you're in Texas or interested in helping out with efforts in Texas, this post is going to break down some of the main things to know about this whole other country down here. If any of you reading this post are supporters in Texas, please e-mail me at ramey.ko@gmail.com. I'm compiling a master list of all AAPI supporters/volunteers in Texas.
The Hybrid Primary
The Texas primary is Tuesday, March 4, 2008. The most important thing to know about the Texas primary is that it's actually a primary AND a caucus. Texas allocates 75% of its 193 pledged delegates based on the primary vote in each of 31 state senate districts (126 delegates total) and 25% based on the outcomes of the literally thousands of precinct "conventions" that take place at 7:15 PM at your precinct polling location on March 4 (67 delegates). This means that Obama supporters should both VOTE in the primary AND take part in their precinct convention (similar to a caucus). As Frank pointed out in the comments, your primary vote will still count if you don't go to the convention, but attending the convention is going to be KEY to an Obama victory.
Also important - Texas has NO party registration. Voters can request either the Democratic or Republican ballot at the polls; you're just not permitted to vote in both. Once you've selected one, you can't vote in the other until the next primary.
Texas has early vote from February 19-29. During early vote, you can vote at any early vote polling location in your county, not just your precinct location. On election day, you do have to vote at your precinct location. If you're a firmly identified Obama supporter (you've given money, signed pledge cards, etc.), you should vote early so the campaign can save GOTV money on you.
For a really good breakdown of the delegate selection process, check out this two part article written by one of my local Democratic friends, Philip Martin:
Approximately 3.5% of the Texas population is AAPI; that's roughly 822,000 people. However, AAPIs in Texas are not particularly concentrated in any one area. Texas is big, and AAPIs in Texas live scattered throughout many neighborhoods. There are virtually no true "Chinatowns" or similar ethnic enclaves.
Of the 31 state senate districts, the four with the greatest concentration of AAPIs are:
SD 17 (Janek) 11.89% (Houston area and suburbs - Sugar Land, Memorial area of Houston, West University (Rice University), Bellaire)
SD 8 (Shapiro) 9.75% (Plano and North Dallas - Plano probably has the highest concentration - this is where my parents live) SD
9 (Harris) 8.09% (Dallas and Denton Counties - Carrollton (where I grew
up), Denton, Flower Mound, Lewisville, Grand Prairie, Arlington)
SD 13 (Ellis) 7.61% (Houston, urban)
For those familiar with Texas, they will notice that the top three AAPI senate districts are upper income, highly educated, and anywhere from pretty Republican to really, really Republican. However, those three districts would best be described as "country club Republican" rather than "Christian Right Republican", with perhaps the exception of SD 9 which is a little more evangelical. These are more "megachurch" folks than small, evangelical congregations. SD 13 is an urban, heavily African American district represented by State Senator Rodney Ellis, widely considered one of the best Democratic legislators of the last couple of decades.
For the most part, except in certain portions of SD 17, Asian Americans are not heavily concentrated in one place in these districts. Even in cases where one city, e.g., Plano, has most of the Asian Americans in the district, you're talking about people being scattered throughout neighborhoods over several miles. You could not hope to contact any significant portion of the AAPI population by simply block walking or phone banking a particular precinct.
The AAPIs that live in the top three senate districts are generally middle to upper income, hold at least a bachelor's degree, but many, many a master's or PhD, are heavily concentrated in the technology and telecommunications sectors (Texas Instruments in the Dallas area alone has hundreds, if not thousands, of AAPI employees, not to mention IBM, Motorola, Samsung, National Instruments, EDS, AMD, Dell, etc.) with some in the energy industry in the Houston area and a good chunk in small businesses from tech to restaurants, nail salons, and dry cleaners, mostly first generation immigrants, and likely to have children. They are generally more independent in voting behavior, with little party loyalty (slightly more Republican in the Dallas area, slightly more Democratic in the Houston area). For many, economic issues outweigh immigration and civil rights in importance. The recession is a top worry for many AAPIs in Texas.
As a result, the Texas AAPI population can be said to be less "institutional" than their counterparts in California or New York. There are few community "leaders" that can influence large swaths of the population. There are few strong institutional connections to political figures; few people here can say that the Clintons gave us anything in Texas. The political relationships with the community are highly individualized and depend greatly on the particular politician. Texas politicians known to have strong relationships with the AAPI community range from centrist African American former mayor of Dallas Ron Kirk to progressive Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson to uber conservative Congressman Pete Sessions. One notable exception is Democratic State Rep. Hubert Vo, from SD 17. He is a first generation Vietnamese immigrant and wields substantial influence with the Vietnamese community in Houston (he came out for Clinton early). There are few other similar figures, though. In fact, AAPI communities are notorious in Texas for being split over candidates from their own community.
All of this points to a great opportunity for Obama to make inroads in the AAPI community in Texas.
Obama has been endorsed by the Dallas Morning News, the Austin American-Statesman, the San Antonio Express-News, and the El Paso Times. Obama was also endorsed yesterday by what is probably the most widely read Democratic blog in Texas, Burnt Orange Report.
And for fun, here's a video of the most recent election watch party from Feb. 12 (DC-MD-VA) of the Austin area Obama grassroots folks. I was there, and so were around a dozen of the Obama campaign staff who had just arrived over the last couple of days. Though this one was announced late, we still had over 100 folks show up, which has been the case for every election watch party throughout this entire process. This is at Scholz Biergarten, which is a legendary hangout for Texas liberals such as Ralph Yarborough, Molly Ivins, and Ann Richards, as well as the "liberal" members of the Texas legislature. The Korean American guy you see in one of the shots is Ronnie Cho, who's doing AAPI outreach for the campaign in the Austin area.
For those of you in the remaining primary and caucus states, a supporter has put together a terrific spreadsheet of all the states, their deadlines to register to vote in the primary or participate in the caucus, party registration rules, as well as local Obama websites and websites for election information and polling locations.
To check your state's information and rules, visit this link. Please let all your friends, neighbors, family, and colleagues know if they still have the opportunity to register (in some cases, you can register the day of) and the rules on who can participate in the Democratic primary or caucus (open in some cases, closed to all but registered Democrats in others).
Obama takes South Carolina by 55 points to Clinton's 27. Native son, John Edwards, won only 18% of the vote. While Obama claimed over 80% of the African American vote, 25% of White voters also supported Obama, suggesting he had support across all demographics.
Clinton retained her hold over older, White women, but younger men and women supported Obama. Interestingly, Obama also seemed to benefit from the recent stridency of the Clinton's attacks against him; in CNN exit polls, those who thought both Clinton and Obama had attacked one another unfairly, more were likely to have chosen Obama over Clinton.
Sadly, almost no Asian Americans participated in South Carolina's Saturday primary elections, due to our low numbers in that state. Asian Americans will not have an opportunity to show our political mettle until February 5th, when both New York and California will be voting in the Democratic primaries. These areas, where Asian Americans are extremely populous, are likely to be influenced by high Asian American voter turnout.
There are only nine days left until February 5th -- Super, Duper Tuesday. It's time for that final push.
Exit polls show that Sen. Obama won among almost every demographic, issue group, etc. Of particular interest is the exit polling that showed that a large majority of voters perceived Sen. Clinton's attacks on Sen. Obama as unfair, and of that cohort, Obama did very well. Of those who said Sen. Obama attacked Sen. Clinton unfairly, Obama still did not perform badly, perhaps implying that the intensity of feeling even among those who believed Obama was unfair to Clinton was far less than the same feeling in the other group.
The General Counsel for the Obama campaign has written a letter to the Chair of the Nevada State Democratic Party asking for an investigation into the Caucus. The letter recounts hundreds, if not thousands, of nearly identical stories of irregularities and questionable tactics by the Clinton campaign across the state, many of which sound very similar to my own experience. Most interestingly, it includes the instruction sheet given to Clinton volunteers, which contains the phrase, "It's not illegal unless they tell you so." The letter also mentions that the Manual told Clinton volunteers to close the doors at 11:30, not 12:00 as the rules stipulated.
The letter does not ask for the Caucus results to be changed, but states that there should be a factually accurate account of what happened to ensure that the right to vote is protected.
The saddest part about all of this is that many of the new voters that came into the process this year have no doubt been disillusioned by what has happened. One of my group was in a precinct where a mother brought her 16 year old son to the Caucus. He was incredibly excited by Sen. Obama, but by the end of the Caucus, he was incredibly demoralized by the behavior he witnessed and left feeling very let down by democracy. He is precisely the kind of young American we cannot afford to lose from the process. The divide and conquer, 50% + 1 strategy of Karl Rove has pushed our democracy to the brink; if we continue this brand of politics, the continued vitality of our great Republic is in peril.
Another volunteer in Nevada shares his story, providing even more evidence confirming the shady tactics used by the Clinton campaign:
To: Las Vegas Review-Journal From: Gregg Heacock Subject: Showdown at Rancho High
While I am totally impressed by Obama's ability to suck up his anger and disappointment, rising above accusing the Clintons of indiscretions in order to advance his campaign in South Carolina, I, like many other observers working inside the caucus rooms in Nevada, must pause to record what I saw on January 19th.
Note from the Author: I discovered today that the original version of this post contained some incorrect information as a result of a misunderstanding on my part. I have edited the content in the interest of greater accuracy, but any remaining mistakes or errors are the fault of this author and his memory/understanding, not those from which I obtained the information.
I'm now sitting in McCarran Airport in Las Vegas waiting for my red-eye back to Austin at 11:46 PM. Despite the loss, it's actually been an incredibly rewarding weekend. I got to meet a lot of wonderful Asian American activists through this effort, including folks who were here for non-candidate specific Asian American voter protection and outreach. We debriefed at 5:00 pm on Saturday at Red Mango, a place that serves that Korean "health food" frozen yogurt stuff that's crazy popular in California. We brainstormed ways to move forward on the momentum created by this weekend and the accomplishments of our group in order to expand and enhance the Asian American community's role in the democratic process. Saturday night we relaxed a bit, and I got to do a little gambling and won $50 playing the slots (which I then lost this afternoon, but hey, I ended the trip even).
Today I got to chat more with filmmakers Eric Byler and Annabel Park about their work yesterday documenting on video the experiences of various volunteers and participants at the Nevada Caucus. The conclusion they drew from the interviews was that one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, problems was the confusion surrounding the process. Many of the contentious moments were the consequence of no one really knowing what was happening and disagreeing on the rules. That created space for people to exploit the situation. In fact, apparently different Caucus start times were published in two different newspapers. The Caucus precincts also had these paper ballots with candidates' names. I remember being somewhat confused myself as to why they were necessary in the Caucus process. Many participants apparently submitted those ballots and left before the final count, thinking they were voting in the traditional way.
It's a little after 3 AM here in Las Vegas, NV, and I'm sitting here in my hotel room getting ready for bed. I've been up for about 22 hours. We woke up at 5 AM to get to the local HQ at 6 AM and receive our morning door hanger assignments. My team, which included Jenn Fang of the awesome blog www.reappropriate.com, and my weekend roommate, Patrick Wong, were assigned three areas to place hangers on doors with information about the Caucus. Even though it was freezing this morning, we all quickly worked up a sweat as we ran up and down blocks trying to get everything done before our 9:15 AM deadline. Patrick is a marathon runner, so he was doing several blocks at full sprint while I was huffing and puffing my way from door to door. This was definitely the best workout I've gotten in a long time.
