From our nonpartisan friends at APIA Vote.

Gubernatorial and Congressional Races

In this year’s state elections, California Democratic Lt. Gov John Garamendi beat out Republican David Harmer 53 to 43 for California’s 10th Congressional District. Garamendi replaces the seat of former Rep. Ellen Tauscher, who has been appointed to the State Department.  Lt. Governor Garamendi’s chief of staff, Filipina-American, Mona Pasquil, will serve in an acting capacity as lieutenant governor – serving in an administrative function – until the governor’s appointee is confirmed.

For New York’s 23rd Congressional District, Democrat Bill Owens won the special election to fill the seat left by John M. McHugh (now the Secretary of the Army). Owens defeated Republican candidate Dierdre Scozzafava.

While Democrats retained two congressional seats, Republicans gained two gubernatorial seats on November 3.

In Virginia’s gubernational race, Republican Bob McDonnell handily defeated Democrat and State Senator Creigh Deeds 59 to 41, in an election that once again puts a Republicans at the state’s helm.

Similarly, in New Jersey, Republican Christopher Christie beat his opponent Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine 49 to 45.

Ballot Initiatives

Two steps forward, one step back in Washington state and Maine

Washington state’s Initiative Measure 1033 which concerns the use of state, county, and city revenue was defeated by 10 percentage points (55.4 to 44.6) by voters.  Measure 1033 would have severely cut “state revenues, limit growth of certain state, county and city revenue to annual inflation and population growth, not including voter-approved revenue increases. Revenue collected above the limit would reduce property tax levies.” According to the Washington Secretary of State, 1033 was estimated to reduce general state revenues by approximately $6 billion by 2015. These revenues support the general fund which funds education, social, health, environmental, and general government services (Source: Washington Secretary of State).

Measure 1033 is similar to the TABOR (taxpayers’ bill of rights) legislation voted into law in 1992. Colorado’s TABOR limited the growth of state and local revenues to “a highly restrictive formula: inflation plus the annual population change,” which is insufficient for funding government and its services (Center for Budget and Policy Priorities). TABOR created a structural budget deficit, making programs and services compete for funding, and not enabling the state to deal with new or unmet needs. In 2005, Coloradans voted to suspend TABOR for 5 years, temporarily stemming the measure’s damage.

While Washington state has advanced LGBT rights by voting yes on Referendum 71 (51% to 49%) which expands rights and responsibilities of state-registered domestic partners, Maine has chosen to reject a law that allowed same-sex couples to wed. Approved by the legislature in May, the issue gathered enough signatures for a “people’s veto,” which led to the vote on November 3. The laws allowing same-sex marriage (CT, IA, MA, NH, VT) were voted by legislatures and decided by courts, and not by popular vote.

Building off the work in 2006 and 2008, APIAVote WA in conjunction with the Win-Win Network contacted targeted AAPI voters with a No on 1033 and Approve R71 message. APIAVote WA’s efforts proved fruitful when a majority of voters chose equality over bigotry by approving R71 and protecting public services by voting down Initiative 1033.

APIAVote WA hired a phone bank coordinator to conduct phone banks over nine days leading up to Election day.  APIAVote WA utilized the Voter Activation Network to target and call 8,643 phone numbers, contacting 764 AAPI voters in King County.  Organizers also conducted robopolls to identify Vietnamese and Chinese speaking households to increase efficiency of their multi-lingual phone banking program.

Maine’s rejection of same-sex marriage comes on the heels of California’s bitter Proposition 8 fight in 2008, in which Prop 8 overturned a state Supreme Court ruling that same-sex marriages was a constitutional right.

AAPI Candidates

Several AAPI candidates won their races, showing their support from the AAPI community as well as their broader constituents.  In New York, John Liu won the Comptroller election making him the first Asian-American to serve as a top city official.  Mark Keam, won Virginia’s 35th District House of Delegates seat, making him the first Asian-American to serve in Virginia government.  Margaret Chin won her New York City Council race, the first time a Chinese-American has won in the Manhattan Chinatown district.  AAPI voters across the country were energized as another dozen AAPI candidates in school board and city council elections won their elections.  Tuesday’s election results make quite the victory for AAPI elected officials.

See the list below for full results: