On July 14th, the San Gabriel Valley is set to do something that has never been done before: send a Chinese American woman to Congress. Barring the inconceivable, Board of Equalization Vice-Chair (and Democrat) Judy Chu will win the seat vacated by US Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, as a result of her resounding victory in the open primary held on May 19th.

Voter registration in the district leans heavily toward the Democratic party, which makes the top Democratic winner in the primary a lock to fill the 32nd Congressional seat during the general election. Despite the shortened campaign season, the top contenders were able to cram the equivalent of a year’s worth of fund-raising into just a few months; Judy Chu raised over $1 million while Gil Cedillo raised more than $700,000. Third place finisher Emanuel Pleitez raised over $200,000 while the Republican nominee Betty Tom Chu is said to have spent over $100,000 of her own money to come in fourth overall.

Congressional seats do not open very often, and the intense fund-raising and campaigning that ensued was a demonstration of how valuable this seat was. With the population registering at over 50% Latino, and with a Latino or Latina holding this seat for the past quarter century, some had no qualms claiming that this was a “Latino seat” that needed to stay in Latino hands.

Indeed, one of the leading candidates even went so far as to say that the seat was “tailor-made” for him. As disturbing as that may sound, there is an element of truth to his claim. As a result of gerrymandering, Asian Pacific American candidates are disfavored demographically in nearly every legislative district that they compete in, including the 32nd Congressional district.

While natural and contiguous APA communities of interest do exist in Southern California, they have been sliced and diced in ways that dilute their voting power. For example, the heavily APA San Gabriel Valley is divided among five different Congressional representatives. Taking that into account, it’s not surprising that it has been more than 10 years since Southern California has elected an APA Congressmember.

APAs have arguably suffered more acutely than other communities of interest through gerrymandering since lines are drawn by sitting legislators. The last time lines were drawn in 2001 there were only two APA legislators in all of California and during the redistricting of 1991, there were none. The 2008 passage of Proposition 11 and the creation of a Citizen’s Redistricting Commission should place the fox at a safer distance from the hen house, but it will require vigilant public oversight and input to be effective (visit www.bsa.ca.gov/redistricting to get involved).

Despite these structural impediments, APA leaders have been making steady gains in the electoral arena. At the state level we now have 10 APAs in the Assembly and Senate, most of whom elected from regions where APAs are a minority. This is a testament not just to the political savvy of APA leaders, but to the political maturation of a California electorate willing to elect members on the basis of ability rather than ethnicity.

And while the media has focused on the ascendancy of an APA to a traditionally Latino seat in this Democratic stronghold, what is possibly more groundbreaking is that for the first time in US history, both major party nominees in a Congressional race are Asian Pacific American; Judy Chu for the Democratic Party and Betty Tom Chu (distantly related by marriage) for the Republican Party. Combined, they won 43% of the total vote among 12 candidates for a seat some might say was “tailor-made” for them to lose. Despite what the pundits may have predicted, it looks like even Democrats and Republicans in the 32nd Congressional District can agree on one thing, and that’s a Chinese American Chu for Congress.

– Jay Chen