John Liu Wins Election for New York City Comptroller

Posted on 20. Nov, 2009 by Lulu Yilun Chen in Beats Blog, Politics and Government

By Lulu Yilun Chen

John Liu, democratic candidate for comptroller and a Queens councilman, last night won the election for New York City Comptroller, the city’s chief financial officer, in a landslide victory, making him the first Asian American elected to citywide office in the city’s history.

Liu beat his competitor, Republican candidate Joseph Mendola, with 75.98 percent of the votes, adding up to 696,330 votes.

“I’m ready to make changes,” said Liu as he greeted voters near Washington Heights on Tuesday night.  “It’s been an exciting campaign. It’s been over four years.”

The elections of Liu, as comptroller, along with Margaret Chin and Peter Koo to City Council seats represent a significant political watershed moment:  Asian American politicians on the east coast rising to political power.

“Chinese Americans being elected at a city level will change the perceptions of New Yorkers toward Asian people,” said Cynthia Lee, 39, the chief curator of the Museum of Chinese in America based in Chinatown. She explained that Asian Americans have experienced greater difficulty being accepted as Americans compared to other white ethnic groups.

Liu, 42, moved from Taiwan to America at the age of 5. A former actuary who majored in mathematical physics at Binghamton University and graduated in 1988, he was first elected to the council in 2001, and defeated Councilman David Yassky in this September’s runoff election for the Democratic slot in this fall’s comptroller race.

Liu said he plans to implement reforms to the city comptroller’s office within his first six months in office. Some of Liu’s top agenda items, listed on his official website, include dealing with the economic slump, leveling the playing field for minority and small businesses, creating jobs, and eliminating waste from the city budget.

Having had no sleep on the night before the election, Liu began his day at around 7:00 am on Tuesday. He greeted morning commuters in Queens dressed in a black suit and red tie, with his hair waxed and combed back.

“Who needs sleep? Sleep is overrated,” said Liu, with his customary energy.

Crowds gathered around Liu and he acknowledged their handshakes and hugs with a big smile and words of thanks.

“John Liu did well in the eight years he was councilman in Flushing. That’s why I voted for him,” said Zhang Lihong, a Chinese immigrant in Flushing.

Backed by strong support from the Chinese community, Liu boosted his chances of winning by reaching out to different communities and ethnic groups in New York.

“It’s different neighborhoods, but it’s one city,” said Liu. “We’re trying to unify the city and make sure that everyone gets counted.”

Liu is following on the steps of more successful Asian politicians on the West Coast. According to Linda Akutagawa, the vice president for resource and business development based in California, Asian Americans who have done well in elections pay special attention to coalition strategies – reaching out to different neighborhoods.

This has been a challenge for many Asian American candidates in New York, according to Hu Jie, the vice president for the Beijing Association of New York, based in Flushing.

“We know the Asian Americans candidates well, but it’s a challenge for them to let other ethnic groups understand them and trust them,” Hu said in Chinese. “They have to work on that hard.”

During his campaign, Liu not only traveled in different neighborhoods in New York, but also used social networking websites to promote his campaign. Even on the night before Election Day, at around 4 a.m., Liu was responding to Facebook messages and posting links to promotion videos on Youtube.

At around 4:00 p.m. on Election Day, Liu traveled to Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn, a predominantly black neighborhood, and greeted commuters as they got off from work.

“His family struggled when he first moved here as an immigrant. He understands what common people need,” said Gregory Collins, 51, who has lived in Brooklyn for more than 40 years.

After numerous handshakes and several photos shot with commuters, Liu rushed off to 125th Street and St. Nicholas Street to join Bill Thompson in Washington Heights, a predominantly Dominican neighborhood. The two Democrats greeted commuters as they traveled down the street and popped their heads into buses parked at stations, urging people to vote.

Liu ended his day’s trip on 43rd Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues in Manhattan where he received the news of his victory.

According to Lee, the Chinese Museum chief curator, the change in demography has played an important role in helping Asian American rise to political power this year.

Asian Americans on the west coast have risen to political power faster than those on the east coast because for a long time Asians were demographically concentrated on the west coast, said Akutagawa, the vice president for the Business Development organization in California.

That is changing now. The Chinese population in New York grew by 19 percent, according to an estimate from 2000 to 2007, while the city’s total population grew only by three percent over the same period, according to studies released by the Asian American Federation.

About 5.4 percent of all New York City residents are from China, up from 4.7 percent from the 2000 Census, according to the federation.

Bronx District 14 Streets Alive with City Council Campaigns

Posted on 02. Nov, 2009 by Shawna-Kaye Lester in Metro, Politics and Government

By Shawna-Kaye Lester

With just 72 hours before Tuesday’s hotly-contested primary election for City Council, three Bronx Democratic candidates, seeking to win last-minute support, took their campaigns to apartment complexes, neighborhood arts festivals and local streets.

In a battle for Council District 14, Yudelka Tápia, founder of the first Dominican political club in the Bronx, and Fernando Cabrera, founder and pastor of a local New Life International Outreach Church, are jostling to unseat incumbent Councilmember María Baez, who is seeking a third term to represent voters in Fordham, University Heights, Kingsbridge, West Bronx and the Morris Heights sections of the Bronx.

As Mr. Cabrera took his message to apartment building residents and Ms. Tápia’s campaign organized a motorcade through the district’s streets, Ms. Baez appeared with other local elected officials at the Fordham’s Renaissance Festival.

On Saturday afternoon, Yudelka Tápia departed in a motorcade of some twenty vehicles, spreading her message that “The Time is Now.” As speakers boomed “Tápia! Tápia! Táaaapia!” she rode for four hours in an open-air convertible, starting the journey outside her Grand Concourse office and making her way through the Kingsbridge, Jerome Avenue and Tremont Avenue areas. Surrounded by teenage and adult volunteers, she got out of the car on Grand Avenue and in several other places to shake hands, and encourage people to go to the polls and elect change by voting for her. Residents peered from apartment windows as Tápia smiled and waved to them. At traffic lights, her campaign staff popped out of their cars and plastered posters walls and handed out flyers.

María Baez received support from fellow elected officials as she fought back questions and criticism about her 52.5 percent 2008 attendance record as a City Council member. She was center stage at Sunday’s 2009 Fordham Renaissance Festival on Fordham Road. Assemblyman José Rivera, who co-hosted the event with his daughter, New York City State Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, gave Baez and her supporters some 15 minutes to exhort from the crowd support for her campaign. Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer and Assemblyman Nelson Castro were also among those showing their support for Baez on stage.

“There’s a lot of individuals trying to trick us,” Baez told the crowd, referring to the negative comments about her attendance record from opponents and the media.

“Please, we are smart voters and on Tuesday we are going to show them just how smart we are. We’re going to go out there and we are gonna vote for María Baez!”

On Monday night, at the Roosevelt Gardens apartment complex on Grand Concourse, Fernando Cabrera, a political novice who has won the support of the Bronx Democratic Party, filled his back pocket and hands with flyers and went door-to-door in the 10 building complex, shaking hands and meeting people.

He was accompanied by Nilsa Medina, a resident of the complex and member of 1199 SEIU- one of several unions that officially support Cabrera’s candidacy, as he rang doorbells and spoke with whoever would listen. He also stuck flyers beneath the doors that were not opened. Dismounting a staircase he said, “You do this every day, you get tired, but it matters.”

“It’s victory,” Medina chimed in.

Cabrera asked several of the people he met about their ethnic heritage, and used the opportunity of the one-to-one meeting to plug his own mixed Puerto Rican and Dominican background and his commitment to providing youth more opportunities, which struck a chord with the residents.

“There is nothing like human contact,” said Cabrera, referring to his choice to walk door-to-door every night for the past six months.

“People want to know you are real; New Yorkers are good at telling what is real and what is phony.” He added: “Tomorrow you can expect total, total victory.”

Cynthia Colón, a 28-year-old resident of the complex used the opportunity to tell Cabrera that despite the bad economy, she is really saddened that there are no programs in place for youth. “I’m grateful that you came out. It means a lot” she said.

For Yudelka Tápia, it was dark when her caravan returned to its starting point, where she thanked her supporters and encouraged them to join her at 9 a.m. the next day to visit the district’s seven churches: “We are going to fill the churches with Yudelka Tápia tomorrow!” she proclaimed through a loudspeaker, to a chorus of cheers. “The fight continues! This is a train that is not going to stop until Tuesday. Tuesday we are stopping when we celebrate the victory!”

Fernando Cabrera emerged victor from the September 15 primary election and will contest the general election on November 3, 2009.