Asian American Pacific Islanders for Civic Empowerment Concept Paper As California goes, so goes the country. California Leads the Way Forward (and Backward) Home to the world s 8 th largest economy, California has a long and rich history of exporting both progressive and reactionary policies to the rest of the country. During the 2012 election, Californians passed Proposition 30, which ensured that the rich pay their fair share to strengthen public education and the state s social safety net. Unfortunately, California has also exported some of the nation s most reactionary policies as well, which includes Proposition 187, the anti-immigration legislation and Proposition 209, which banished affirmative action. An increasingly diverse electorate will determine the future of the country s largest state, California. In California and throughout the country, Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are emerging as a powerful progressive force. California s AAPI population grew by 34% over the last decade. This makes AAPIs the fastest growing demographic in the state, with the Latino community rising alongside us at 28%. AAPIs now represent 16% of the state s population and, at over 5.5 million people, represent close to one-third of our country s total AAPI population. In addition to the population growth, it is also clear that AAPIs are also starting to flex our political muscle. The results from the 2012 election reinforce the message that AAPI voters must be part of any strategy to win statewide. From 2008 to 2012, the AAPI electorate DOUBLED to represent 11% of California voters. Although AAPI voters are incredibly diverse, with a disproportionate amount identifying as independent, undecided or unaffiliated with any particular political party, we stood together in the 2012 election. AAPI voters in California voted for fair taxes (Prop 30), workers rights (Prop 32) and green jobs (Prop 39). Specifically, 61% of AAPI voters supported Prop 30 compared with 50% of white voters while 77% of AAPI voters favored Prop 39, the highest percentage of any racial group. Unfortunately, mainstream political parties, candidates and ballot measure campaigns oftentimes overlook AAPI voters on state level issues. Polling conducted in 2010 by the California Labor Federation suggests that AAPI voters tend to receive information about local, national and international issues from ethnic media outlets, but that a donut hole, or gap, exists on state level issues. For example, 11% of all voters did not recognize Jerry Brown or Meg Whitman a month before California s 2010 election. This number was four times higher (44%) for Chinese and Korean voters and six times higher (67%) for Vietnamese voters. According to APEN Action s 2012 field program, close to 75% of all Chinese voters canvassed, including low and high propensity voters, had not been contacted by a major political party in the past two years. The emergence of AAPIs as a powerful progressive bloc guarantees that our community will be contested in the future. Conservatives are already competing for Asian American voters, particularly on issues of 1
affirmative action and economy. One columnist notes that Asian Americans as an electoral bloc should have been a natural ally of the Republican Party because of the community s traditional values and pro-business attitudes. 1 This presents a strategic question regarding who are the best messengers to engage AAPIs. We believe that community-based organizations are the most effective messengers to AAPI communities primarily because our organizations have built power for low-income AAPIs in California for over two decades. Demonstrated Success Organizing AAPIs Since the 1990 s, grassroots organizations like the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) Korean Resource Center (KRC) and Filipino Advocates for Justice (FAJ) have been on California s frontlines combating racist and xenophobic ballot initiatives that attacked immigrants, workers, youth, the environment and communities of color writ large. These experiences taught us that: 1) integrated voter engagement that builds the leadership and power of our community is critical to building lasting power; 2) expanding the electorate to new voters, especially AAPI voters, is necessary given the demographic shifts in the state and country; 3) A strong progressive AAPI voice is needed in the broader social and economic justice movement. Since 1973, FAJ (formerly Filipinos for Affirmative Action) has conducted leadership development and community organizing in the Filipino community on such issues as opposition to English only, welfare reform, the criminalization of youth, and wage theft; as well as support for bilingual education, affirmative action, services for the undocumented, immigration reform, and workers rights for domestic workers. Since 2007, FAJ has targeted young voters, low-wage workers and immigrants through multilingual phone banking, door knocking and poll monitoring. In 2008 our youth successfully passed a Union City measure to create funds for violence prevention programs and in 2014 successfully defeated a local measure that would have repealed protections against development of the Union City hills. Over the past few years we have advocated for rank-choice voting, Prop 30, 32, and 47. FAJ is a founding member of Mobilize the Immigrant Vote (MIV) and also on the steering committee of the California Domestic Workers Coalition that successfully passed the California Domestic Worker Bill of Rights in 2013. Since 1996, KRC s Civic Engagement Program has strengthened the electoral empowerment of the Korean American community in Southern California. KRC takes community members through a step-by-step process from naturalization to voter-registration to education, culminating in Election Day mobilization. Services include naturalization, voter registration, and 1:1 voter assistance. Education includes mailers, candidate questionnaires, and surveys. In 2012, over 100 Campaign Fellows played a leading role in bringing Korean American support for Prop 30 to the highest levels of any ethnic group in California. KRC helped bring Los Angeles Korean American voter turnout from 10-20% points behind county averages to reaching, and even exceeding, median turnout in the 2012 Presidential Elections and 2013 Municipal Elections. KRC also uses civic engagement to identify voters supportive of immigration reform and affordable housing. KRC sits on the Steering Committees of Mobilize the Immigrant Vote, Los Angeles Equity Alliance, and Orange County Civic Participation Table. KRC provides database and campaign-design consulting to organizations throughout the country. 1 Leon Hadar, Asian-American Voters as a Republican Parable, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leon-thadar/2012-election-asian-american-voters_b_1590016.html, (September 10, 2014) 2
Since 2000, CPA s Political Empowerment Program seeks to increase the civic engagement and political power of low-income Chinese immigrants by developing their leadership skills and deepening both their understanding of key issues and involvement in the electoral process. CPA played a leading role in passing the SF Minimum Wage Ordinance in 2003 and the Paid Sick Leave Ordinance in 2006, which are now national models. In 2012, CPA worked with sister organization CPA Action to provide technical assistance training and consulting to San Francisco Rising Action and other grassroots organizations. CPA is on the Strategy Council of Mobilize the Immigrant Vote and is on the Leadership Committee of the SF Rising Alliance. On a national level, CPA has played a leadership role in convening grassroots API organizations with over 30 organizations at the Grassroots APIs Rising for Racial and Economic Justice Convening in New Orleans last year. Since 2004, APEN has incorporated a multi-pronged civic engagement strategy to advance environmental justice that includes voter education, innovative voter engagement methods and coalition building to reach Chinese and Laotian voters in the Bay Area and California. In 2012, APEN worked with their sister organization APEN Action on a statewide API voter engagement program, which was the largest API voter engagement program in the state. APEN launched the first statewide AAPI Voter Guide in 6 Asian languages, which reached over 80,000 voters in California and trained over 100 API labor and community leaders throughout the state in multilingual Speakers Bureau trainings. APEN is part of Powering Change, a national partnership between philanthropy and emerging climate movement leaders that aims to build democratic power necessary for our transition to an equitable low carbon economy. Additionally, APEN is a formal statewide ally to California Calls and a local anchor with Oakland Rising, multi-racial electoral formations. Collectively, the leadership of APEN, CPA, FAJ and KRC continue to deploy sophisticated multilingual electoral programs that reach tens of thousands of AAPI voters in each election cycle. In 2012 alone, KRC, APEN, FAJ and CPA targeted close to 302,000 Chinese, Korean and Filipino voters statewide, contacted over 73,500 and ID d close to 53,225 supportive voters. The success of our organizations is not isolated to scale. The three organizations have also contributed to the dearth of research on AAPI voters. These innovations have included creating database with surnames translated into Chinese and Korean characters to enable members and leaders to call voter lists; trilingual canvassers to handle a linguistically diverse foreign born Chinese voter list; strategies to reach high-density Chinese and Korean apartment buildings through the establishment of building and precinct captains; and founding Oakland Rising and SF Rising to build multiracial, progressive power among low-income voters and coordinate electoral activities. Within the broader social justice movement, our organizations also posses a fundamental belief that AAPI leadership and voices are needed as part of a winning coalition with other people of color and allies, including the LGBTQ, immigrant rights, workers rights and environmental justice movements. This belief in alliance building is reflected in our participation with a range of local, state and national alliances. 3
AAPIs For Civic Empowerment Based on our collective expertise, our organizations propose a statewide formation whose purpose is to advance state policies, campaigns and issues that support low-income AAPIs by building statewide AAPI civic engagement infrastructure and serving as a resource for emerging AAPI organizations. To achieve this purpose, AAPIs for Civic Empowerment will have c3 and c4 strategies and fundraising efforts. The initial three core tactics will focus on the following: Create Statewide Network Create a statewide network comprised of high capacity organizations with a history of organizing low-income AAPIs and a commitment to increase AAPI electoral power through an integrated voter engagement model. The initial phase will include a presence in five (5) strategic counties with a commitment to diversify the ethnic and geographic composition of the alliance. Build Progressive Pole within AAPI Electorate Through integrated voter engagement, the statewide alliance will educate and mobilize low propensity AAPI voters through a range of multilingual and culturally competent direct voter contact strategies, including but not limited to door-to-door canvassing and phone banking. An initial strategy that the network will deploy is utilizing the California AAPI Voter Guide to educate voters throughout the state. The network is also committed to changing the composition of the California electorate through targeted voter registration campaigns targeting AAPIs. Increase AAPI Civic Engagement Infrastructure Increase statewide AAPI civic engagement infrastructure by providing training, coaching and strategic planning to emerging AAPI organizations throughout the state, with a priority to striving for ethnic and geographic diversity. The network is also committed to playing a convener role with the intention sharing best practices. We also recognize the growth of the AAPI population across the country and plan to play a TA role for new and emerging AAPI organizations on a national level. Demographic Analysis: Priority Counties Although California s AAPI population is broad and diverse, the electorate is geographically concentrated. Approximately 95% of California s API voters reside in 15 counties, listed in the chart below. Similarly, 12 of these 15 counties also have the highest density of AAPI voters in the state. The counties that have a high concentration but are not reflected in the chart below are counties with smaller populations, including: Sutter, Yolo and Merced. Base Counties The three anchor organizations have significant experience organizing AAPI immigrants and refugees in 5 of the top 10 counties, including: Los Angeles, Orange, Alameda, San Francisco and Contra Costa. Thus, these counties will form the regional base for our initial efforts. Target Counties Based on population growth, key political races and geographic diversity, our efforts may also include targeted investments to strengthen organizations and build a more engaged AAPI electorate in several target counties, including: Santa Clara, San Diego, San Mateo, San Bernardino, Riverside and Fresno. 4
No. County Total API Voters API Voters (%) Total Voters 1 Los Angeles 427,768 9% 4,791,801 2 Orange 180,384 13% 1,407,682 3 Santa Clara 179,077 22% 812,642 4 Alameda 127,592 16% 798,026 5 SF 99,074 20% 491,701 6 San Diego 86,077 6% 1,552,364 7 Sacramento 56,561 8% 685,425 8 San Mateo 52,784 15% 359,251 9 Contra Costa 42,850 8% 526,478 10 San Bernardino 33,121 4% 858,420 11 Riverside 25,878 3% 872,423 12 Fresno 25,699 6% 405,546 13 San Joaquin 22,143 8% 291,674 14 Ventura 17,265 4% 425,441 15 Solano 13,641 7% 209,381 Total People 1,482,891 8% 17,758,537 For more information on AAPI s for Civic Empowerment, please contact: Amado Uno, APEN amado@apen4ej.org Alex Tom, Chinese Progressive Association alex@cpasf.org Lillian Galledo, Filipino Advocates for Justice lgaledo@filipinos4justice.org DJ Yoon, Korean Resource Center djyoon@nakasec.org 5