The UCLA Asian Pacific American Voter Registration Study

Asian Pacific American political involvement is not a new phenomenon, but it has clearly become a significant focus of attention for the Asian Pacific American population. Perhaps at no other period in Asian Pacific American history have so many individuals and organizations of different issue orientations participated in a wide array of political activities, especially in relation to American electoral politics, but also in the affairs of the Pacific Rim. At the same time, what has come to be taken as a quite expected occurrence in Hawaii, namely the election of Asian Pacific Americans to public office, has suddenly become a less than surprising novelty in the Mainland states with the election and appointment of Asian Pacific Americans to federal, state, and local positions in California and elsewhere. Most importantly, perhaps, Asian Pacific Americans have demonstrated that they, too, have resources and talents--financial, organizational, and otherwise--to advance their specific concerns in a host of political arenas, and to confront political issues and actions which are potentially damaging to their group interests and welfare. After decades of being politically disenfranchised because of laws preventing the naturalization of the pioneering immigrant generation, Asian Pacific Americans are now seeking access to major political institutions of our nation.In many respects, our scholarly attention to this major community development has been extremely limited. Aside from the biannual Asian Pacific American National Roster: A Listing of Major Asian-Pacific American Elected and Appointed Officials, which is published by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, and the occasional newspaper articles on the subject, we lack both empirical data and theoretical perspectives for assessing recent Asian Pacific American political activities, especially electoral involvement. In an effort to rectify this glaring gap in our knowledge about the contemporary Asian Pacific American experience, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Los Angeles, with funding and support from the Southwest Voter Registration Project of San Antonio and the Research Committee of the UCLA Academic Senate, sponsored this study of the voter registration and political party affiliation patterns of Asian Pacific Americans in Los Angeles County

National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac

More Asian Pacific Americans hold public office in the United States than at any other time in U.S. history, a sign of the community\u27s growing engagement with the political process, according to a newly released political almanac published by UCLA\u27s Asian American Studies Center. The 14th edition of the National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac, first published in 1976, contains information on all 3,000 current elected and appointed officials. It also analyzes political trends and makes electoral projections of the nation\u27s 17 million Asian Pacific Americans. The National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac is an invaluable guide to the historically large and diverse number of Asian American and Pacific Islander politicians and voters influencing the nation\u27s political landscape, said David K. Yoo, director of the Asian American Studies Center and a professor of Asian American studies at UCLA. Written by UCLA professor emeritus Don Nakanishi and Santa Clara University professor James Lai, two leading political scientists who specialize in Asian American politics, the almanac spotlights individuals who hold municipal, state and national office. The list includes two state governors, three U.S. senators, 10 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, two Obama administration cabinet members, two California statewide elected officials, four members of the California State Supreme Court (including the chief justice) and three of the five members of the California State Board of Equalization. It also includes the majority of Hawaii\u27s Legislature, three California state senators, eight California Assembly members and 44 mayors of cities, including San Francisco, Oakland and Irvine. In their political and electoral analysis, Nakanishi and Lai predict that Asian Pacific Americans will have a significant impact on the upcoming presidential election, with more than 4 million expected to cast ballots in 2012 the largest number in the nation\u27s history. This would represent a 600,000-vote increase over the 2008 election, similar to the increase seen between the 2004 and 2008 elections. Asian Pacific American voters are also expected to play decisive roles in the electoral-rich states of California, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, Virginia, Florida and Massachusetts, the authors say.https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/faculty_books/1262/thumbnail.jp

Asian American Politics: Law, Participation, and Policy

Asian Americans are emerging as a political force and yet their politics have not been systematically studied by either social scientists or politicians. Asian American politics transcend simple questions of voting behavior and elective office, going all the way back to early immigration laws and all the way forward to ethnic targeting.For the first time, this book brings together original sources on key topics influencing Asian American politics, knit together by expert scholars who introduce each subject and place it in context with political events and the greater emerging literature. Court cases, legislation, demographics, and key pieces on topics ranging from gender to Japanese American redress to the Los Angeles riots to Wen Ho Lee round out this innovative reader on a politically active group likely to grow in number and electoral impact.https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/faculty_books/1264/thumbnail.jp

Awakening the New “Sleeping Giant”?: Asian American Political Engagement

The 01/01/2008 election was a milestone in the emergence of Asian Americans as a factor in American politics, with national television news networks openly discussing and analyzing California’s Asian American voters. Most mainstream analysis, however, had very little in-depth understanding of the population. This essay provides some insights into the absolute and relative size of the Asian American population, along with key demographic characteristics, their participation in electoral politics, some of the barriers the encounter, and future prospects. The brief is based on analyzing the most recently available data, the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS) and the 2006 November Current Population Survey (CPS). This analysis builds on a previous analytical brief which examined the emergence of Asian Americans as California politics’ new “sleeping giant,” a term that was applied to Hispanics in the 1980s and 1990s because of their rapid growing numbers