Congratulations Congresswoman Judy Chu
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After she won what started out as a long shot bid to replace Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis as the congressmember from the largely Hispanic 32nd CD, centered in the San Gabriel Valley, it was almost a certainty that Judy Chu would win a run-off against a token GOP candidate whose only hope was in the confusion that she could cause because her name is also Chu. Not enough people were confused and strongly progressive Judy Chu beat the pants off the reactionary Betty Chu in a two to one landslide. As the San Gabriel Valley Tribune pointed out, Betty Chu is a typical Republican creep. She started calling herself Betty Chu for the sake of the campaign and her "campaign has a propensity for doctoring photographs of opponents in its mailers, adding facial moles and bad dentistry, as she did to Monterey Park council candidate David Lau and to Judy Chu in May."
It was an extremely low turnout but the right-wing Chu, who was also caught cheating on fundraising reports during the campaign, didn't manage to break a third of the vote. Judy Chu is the first Chinese-American woman ever elected to Congress.
Judy Chu had been endorsed by DWT and by virtually all the media in the district. Last week in their endorsement, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune said the choice couldn't be clearer. And they pointed out that "She has the backing of virtually every other city council member in the diverse district in part because of her obviously solid credentials and in great part because her local service ensures that she understands the crucial needs of our cities. And before that, equally importantly, she served on the Garvey School Board."
In the highly Democratic district, it wasn't a surprise that it was a Democrat-- Judy Chu-- who took the highest plurality of votes in May. But political observers did watch with interest to see how much mere ethnicity seemed to matter in the 32nd, which is 51 percent Latino, and 30 percent primarily Spanish-speaking. About 7 percent is Chinese surnamed, with another 7 percent Vietnamese surnamed, and something on the order of 5 percent Filipino.
Three of the major primary candidates were Latino, but clearly many voters paid more attention to other factors than a person's race--- and that's a great sign for electoral politics in America.
posted by DownWithTyranny @ 2:00 AM
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Good Luck to Judy Chu and congratulations to her for being the first chinese american to get elected to Congress.
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Congratulations to Congresswoman Chu from over here in the great State of Hawaii, home of the late great Rep. Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first minority, the first Asian, and one of the few women to serve in Congress up until the 1960's. She began her political career in student government on Maui, right after the Imperial Japanese attack on our own Pearl Harbor in 1941. She was able to convince her fellow students at Maui High that she was truly one of them, and would always represent the interests of her constituents regardless of race, ethnicity or creed, to the best of her abilities, which were extraordinary.
Patsy Mink went on to help forge the coalition in Congress that made Title IX a landmark in sports, education and women's rights. Quite simply, it said that if the boys could do it, the girls could do it too. As a result, little kids both male and female can now grow up worshiping not just male sports heroes, but females too, never imagining that there is any inferiority linked to gender. That's more than just a symbolic victory, but the symbolism is important, too.
After all the "Tailgunner" Bob Dornan racist reactionary strife, it is good to see "Ornj" County making a new mark on American history. Let's hope everyone gets the message, throughout the Golden State and the nation: Vote your own interests, and ignore appeals to baser instincts. If we can all do that, a brighter future is already here.
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