By Assunta Ng
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
The November election is important and exciting for Asian Americans.
Not only do we have more Asians running for office than I can remember, Asians are running for all levels of political offices, including high profile ones.
In this election, former Seattle City Council President Bruce Harrell is a mayoral candidate, and state Sen. Joe Nguyen is a candidate for King County Executive.
What has also changed is, the Asian community doesn’t have to nudge Asian Americans to run for office. They are determined to run themselves, even with little name recognition or knowledge on how to run a political campaign.
Asian Americans have the confidence to compete alongside mainstream candidates as well as their own people. A case in point is, a Bellevue City Council race—newcomer and business owner Dexter Borbe is challenging 82-year-old incumbent Conrad Lee, who has held the seat for 27 years. Both are of Asian descent.
Newcastle City Council has three seats open, and Pratima Lakhotia, Frank Irigon, and Jesse Tam are all running in those seats.
Don’t vote for divisive candidates
Our city is bleeding. It doesn’t help if we elect candidates who want to represent only one particular group of people and disregard everyone else. They don’t deserve your vote.
We need leadership, not another Kshama Sawant—Lorena Gonzalez is a carbon copy of Sawant. We respect leaders like Harrell who want to bring people together and work with diverse groups with opposing views to solve problems together at the table. We support candidates who appeal to the common goal of making our city a better place to live and work by working together, and to bring out the best of the city instead of tearing people apart. We reject candidates who only want to demonize businesses, rather than opening up a dialogue and involving them to solve problems together. What good does it do for Seattle if Amazon keeps moving jobs to the Eastside?
Candidates who are divisive would likely split one group against another. It’s called “divide and conquer.” Polarization is not leadership, it’s dirty politics and tunnel vision.
Don’t vote for candidates who don’t give a damn about the CID
Graffiti on the House of Hong Restaurant building (Photo by Assunta Ng)
The Chinatown-International District (CID) needs a lot of help and resources, especially since the pandemic. Crime, including robbery, theft, assault, and gun violence, is high in the area. Mayoral candidate Lorena Gonzalez has never visited CID nor met with community leaders to see first-hand how the pandemic has affected our community. She ignores our community, while Harrell has constantly said how he could and would help change the narrative of the CID if he gets elected as mayor of Seattle.
Curtis Dong cleans up broken glass after someone fired a BB gun at this building on S. King St. and 6th Ave. S. last week. (Photo by Assunta Ng)
Walk around and you see the grim reality of our community. The CID needs more police patrols, especially at night. We need more support for businesses. If these businesses don’t survive, it will affect our community’s vibrancy and livelihood. Many of the residents work in the CID. Our residents also depend on these small businesses, such as grocery stores, restaurants, pharmacies, banks, clinics, dental offices, other retails, and numerous nonprofit organizations. Public safety is a major concern. It is short-sighted to deny the CID’s existence and struggles. This community has contributed much to the rich history, economic growth, and diversity of the city.
Even with double locks, Jian He Hang at S. Jackson suffered two break-ins in August and September. (Photo by Assunta Ng)
Vote for candidates who are solution-driven
President Thomas Jefferson demonstrated the art of compromise during the founding of our country in the late 18th century. He brought opposing parties together to work things out for the good of the country.
So vote for candidates who are willing to find solutions together with opposing parties, and compromise for practical purposes. For candidates who are driven with political ideologies, they are harder to work with and less likely to compromise.
For both Asian and non-Asian candidates, we support candidates who have hired AAPI in his/her office, and are responsive to the Asian community.
Don’t base your vote on party affiliation
If you vote for someone based on their political party affiliation, it would be a big mistake. Just because someone is a Democrat or Republican doesn’t mean s/he understands what works for the city. Candidates who adamantly believe that jails should be abolished in the name of justice, lack logic. They are inadequate and incompetent in managing our complex modern society. And those who believe the whole police system is wrong, and every cop is a bad cop, is unfair and biased.
The police department needs retraining and reform, and not disbanding or weakening them so they can’t do their job. Even in Minneapolis, the city where George Floyd was killed in a case of police brutality, increased funding to hire new officers this year.
Those candidates who want to defund police are not fit for office. If they get elected, it would encourage more crimes and endanger society.
I hate to say it, there are Democrats, as well as Republicans who are “nuts.” You shouldn’t vote along party lines without considering other factors.
Don’t vote just because of their ethnic background
Use good judgement to select candidates based on the person, and not their political party label, gender, or ethnicity. While we applaud people of color running for office, we should also study their platforms. This election is too important to vote along ethnic lines. It is clear that progressive constituents are trying to push for a left-leaning agenda, including defunding the police at the expense of our personal and public safety. They are soft on crime and accountability. They don’t care about throwing the city or county into chaos.
You might not agree with everything I say, but vote by all means. This election is too important not to make your voice heard. Don’t pick a candidate just because you have heard of his name. And if you can’t make up your mind on certain candidates, skip them rather than voting for the wrong ones. As author Eric Liu said,
“Non-voting is a form of voting.”
Keep in mind, if you vote for the wrong person, the price the city and the Asian community has to pay, will be high. You can’t take it back.
Assunta can be reached at assunta@nwasianweekly.com.