80-20 Initiative
Encyclopedia
Nonpartisan
In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation....
political organization dedicated to winning equal opportunity and justice for all Asian Americans through a bloc vote: to unite 80% of the Asian American voters behind the presidential candidate who best represents the interests of Asian Americans. Hence, the name, 80-20.
History
The "Asia Gate" of 1996-97 —in which Asian Americans eager to please top Democrat Party politicians, raised money to the point of illegality, only to be abandoned when they got into trouble—sowed the seed for Asian American political empowerment. Frustrated by what he viewed to be the political exploitation of Asian American’s naïveté as evidenced by “Asia Gate”, Dr. S.B. Woo, former Lieutenant Governor of DelawareLieutenant Governor of Delaware
The Lieutenant Governor of Delaware is the second ranking executive officer of the U.S. state of Delaware. Lieutenant Governors are elected for a term of four years in the same general election as the U.S. President and take office the following January....
, set out to organize support to prevent its recurrence. In the Foreword
Foreword
A foreword is a piece of writing sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the writer of the foreword and the book's primary author or the story the book tells...
of the book, Click on Democracy, he related his disappointment with the media, the Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
and Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Parties for misrepresenting and misusing Asian Americans, and his despair over our community’s inaction and its failure to defend itself, rooted in its lack of political maturity and cohesiveness.
As a former politician, Dr. S. B. Woo believed that in order to defend themselves, Asian Americans must develop enough political clout, to reward politicians who cared for their rightful concerns and to punish those who didn't. To communicate effectively with all Asian Americans and to forge a bloc vote, he harnessed the power of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Dr. S. B. Woo, together with several other Asian American leaders, including Dr. Larry Y. Ho, Professor of two endowed Chairs at Harvard University; Henry S. Tang, Chairman of the Committee of 100
Committee of 100
The Committee of 100 was a British anti-war group. It was set up in 1960 with a hundred public signatories by Bertrand Russell, Ralph Schoenman and Reverend Michael Scott and others...
; and Dr. Chang-Lin Tien
Chang-Lin Tien
Chang-lin Tien was a Chinese American professor of mechanical engineering and university administrator. He was the seventh Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley , the first Asian to head a major university in the United States.-Early years:Born in Huangpi, Wuhan, China, Tien and...
, Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, compiled an e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
list of 300 like-minded individuals who donated $50,000 to pursue their vision. On September 26–27, 1998, in a meeting in Foster City, California, 80-20 was born.
Acquiring political clout
Led by Dr. S. B. Woo who provided the organization with his political acumen, supported by unpaid volunteer Board members and officers, and armed with an e-mail list of voters which grew to 700,000, 80-20 claims to have organized the Asian American communities to achieve swing bloc votes for its endorsed candidates to win equal opportunity and justice for all Asian Americans. 80-20 was rated one of our nation’s two most effective cyberspaceCyberspace
Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place.The term "cyberspace" was first used by the cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson, though the concept was described somewhat earlier, for example in the Vernor Vinge short story "True...
political organizations in the 2000 election. Any US citizen or permanent resident, upon paying their membership dues, can become a member of 80-20. Currently, 80-20 has about 2,000 members.
Endorsement of presidential candidates
80-20 holds its Endorsement Convention in the year of a Presidential election, after candidates for both the Republican and Democratic Party have been determined. Each delegate to the convention is an unpaid volunteer who pledges in writing to advocate for 80-20’s endorsed candidate. The delegates are one third each of Democrats, Republicans, and IndependentsIndependent (voter)
An independent voter, those who register as an unaffiliated voter in the United States, is a voter of a democratic country who does not align him- or herself with a political party...
, all elected by dues-paying members, to ensure an objective nonpartisan deliberation.
In the 2004 and 2008 elections, 80-20’s main criterion for endorsement was the response to 80-20’s Questionnaire by the Presidential candidates. In both years, while the Democratic candidates for President answered 80-20’s questionnaire with all affirmative responses (after 80-20 revised the questions by request of the candidates), the Republican candidates did not respond to the questionnaire at all. 80-20 had initially issued a "call to action" to defeat Obame, citing "almost farcical reasons why he would not reply to OUR questionnaire". The call to action has since been deleted from the organization's sites.
80-20 has endorsed the Democratic candidate in the 2000, 2004 and 2008 presidential elections.
Delivering swing bloc votes
Once 80-20 endorses a candidate, it organizes Asian American bloc votes for its endorsed candidate, relying partly on volunteers, ethnic media radio, print and TV ads; and mostly on its e-mail communication with its 700,000 Asian American supporters, their families and their friends.Breaking the glass ceiling
Based on publicly available government statistics, Asian Americans have the lowest chance of rising to management when compared with blacks, Hispanics and women in spite of having the highest educational attainmentEducational attainment
Educational attainment is a term commonly used by statisticians to refer to the highest degree of education an individual has completed.The US Census Bureau Glossary defines educational attainment as "the highest level of education completed in terms of the highest degree or the highest level of...
.
80-20 compiled these data which has been verified in writing by the Chief Statistician of EEOC, Ronald Edwards, into charts; and on September 6, 2006, 80-20 took out a full page Ad in the Washington Post in effort to educate the general public.
Subsequently, the ad was read into the Congressional Record
Congressional Record
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published by the United States Government Printing Office, and is issued daily when the United States Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks...
by Senator Tom Carper of Delaware.
Executive Order 11246
Executive Order 11246
Executive Order 11246, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 24, 1965 required Equal Employment Opportunity. The Order "prohibits federal contractors and federally assisted construction contractors and subcontractors, who do over $10,000 in Government business in one year from...
signed into law in 1965, requires equal employment opportunity and prohibits discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
. This law has been enforced for all except Asian Americans, as evidence by the low glass ceiling
Glass ceiling
In economics, the term glass ceiling refers to "the unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements." Initially, the metaphor applied to barriers in the careers of women but...
still hanging over this ethnic minority. Prior to election 2008, in its effort to shatter this glass ceiling, 80-20 obtained written commitments from nine of the eleven Democratic Presidential candidates, including then Senator Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
and Senator Joe Biden
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
, to enforce EO 11246 for All Asian Americans.
Asian American judges
While Asian Americans make up 5% of the US population in 2008, only eight of the 867 (less than 1%) Article III Federal judges are Asian Americans.During the 2008 Presidential campaign, to remedy the underrepresentation of Asian Americans in the Federal judiciary, 80-20 sent out a questionnaire to all the Presidential candidates. Senator Obama and Senator Biden responded and promised in writing to increase the appointment of Asian American federal judges.
By June 2010, President Obama has nominated six Asian Americans to a seat on the U.S. District Court, including Judge Jacqueline Nguyen
Jacqueline Nguyen
Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Nguyen is a judge from Los Angeles County, California and a former federal prosecutor. She is currently a United States district judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and a nominee to the U.S...
and Dolly M. Gee
Dolly M. Gee
Dolly Maizie Gee is a United States district judge on the United States District Court for the Central District of California.- Early life and education :...
for the United States District Court for the Central District of California
United States District Court for the Central District of California
The United States District Court for the Central District of California serves over 18 million people in southern and central California, making it the largest federal judicial district by population...
, and Judges Edward M. Chen
Edward M. Chen
Edward Milton Chen is a United States District Judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. On May 10, 2011, the United States Senate confirmed Chen in a 56–42 vote...
and Lucy H. Koh
Lucy H. Koh
Lucy Haeran Koh is a United States district judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.- Early life and education :Born in Washington, D.C., Koh earned an A.B...
for the United States District Court for the Northern District of California
United States District Court for the Northern District of California
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San...
, Edmond Chang for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois is the trial-level court with jurisdiction over the northern counties of Illinois....
, and Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi for United States District Court for the District of Hawaii
United States District Court for the District of Hawaii
The United States District Court for the District of Hawaii is the principal trial court of the United States Federal Court System in the state of Hawaii. It is located at the Prince Kuhio Federal Building in downtown Honolulu, fronting the Aloha Tower and Honolulu Harbor. The court hears both...
.
On October 6, 2009, President Obama nominated Judge Denny Chin
Denny Chin
Denny Chin is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He was a judge on the United States district court for the Southern District of New York before joining the federal appeals bench. President Clinton nominated Chin to the district court on March 24, 1994, and...
to a seat on the U.S. Courts of Appeals in the Second Circuit, the first Asian American Appeals court judge to be nominated since 1996, more than 12 years ago. This was followed on February 24, 2010 by the nomination of Goodwin H. Liu to a seat on the U.S. Courts of Appeals in the Ninth Circuit.
As of December 18, 2010, all of the above nominations have been confirmed by the Senate except for the nominations of Edward Chen and Goodwin Liu.
Anti-racial attack
In the 2002 Primary electionPrimary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
, there were two racist attacks against Asian American candidates by their political opponents. As a result, 80-20 passed a resolution, aiming to stop such attacks.