Power Play: APIAs on the GOP campaigns

I did something like this for the Democratic candidates, and now I want to take a look at the APIAs on campaign staffs and how (if?) GOP candidates are doing APIA outreach. The state of APIa outreach in the GOP is not non-existent, but it is at higher levels than 2004. Most notably, none of the major candidates has an APIA outreach group listed on their website with the exception of Sam Brownback. He also has an Iowa Vietnamese for Brownback coalition, which is pretty sweet, micro-targeted and sophisticated. One might wonder if there is a point to having an Iowa APIA outreach group, even for the GOP, but it just so happens that there are over 40,000 APIAs in Iowa according to the Iowa Asian Alliance. Also, I am proud of my peeps, be they GOP or Dem, for pulling together politically to increase our power - it shows increased sophistication in political organizing.

Brownback is in the lead with APIA outreach, given the following supporters:

Sam Kim, General Counsel, Jericho Institute, listed as a member of his exploratory committee, and these additional supporters:
J. Joseph Kim, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, President and CEO of VGX Pharmaceuticals, Blue Bell, PA. Veteran of the biopharmaceutical industry. Originally from Salina, Kansas.

Young K. Park, Vice President and General Counsel of VGX Pharmaceuticals. Over 14 years of experience as a business lawyer in Philadelphia.

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DAVID KIM
Sweet Factory, CEO
David Kim is a leading California businessman who finances and operates hundreds of restaurants throughout Southern California. His latest acquisition, the Baja Fresh chain of Fresh-Mex restaurants, puts him on the map as a leader in providing healthy food to American consumers much more quickly than possible in the past.

Mitt Romney seems to be second in APIA outreach, with press releases announcing 2 Asian Americans for Mitt co-chairs: Amb. Sichan Siv and Amb. Julia Chang Bloch.

Also notable, Ron Paul has an APIA e-Campaign manager in the person of Justine Lam. She is a former director at the Charles Koch fellowship program, and most notably, she is one of the few female, much less APIA, e-campaign managers in 2008 on either side. Of course, this is a pretty progressive thing, except that Ron Paul happens to be one of the more innovative candidates with web organizing in the GOP.

McCain has a Dr. Jong Chen listed as a member of the California Finance committee, can't find much on this one.

As an overview, they are still lagging Dems with staffers and supporters. Well, I was going to post that practically all the Dems have APIA outreach groups listed on their website, but then I did a looksee, and well, only Hillary, Obama, and Edwards make mention of us. So that means that everyone else including Richardson (hmm, wonder why. . . I guess his persecution of Wen Ho Lee didn't go over so hot back home or elsewhere) lacks targeted APIA outreach online, although our community is the most tech savvy.

*sigh* I guess the silver lining is that Dem campaigns also have more APIA staffers, and that these staffers, regardless of who they work for, are gaining valuable experience that will help them run other campaigns and shape policy down the line.