LA Chronicles: Asian-American Political Power on the Rise in LA

good morning. LA on the Record — Welcome to the Local Election Newsletter.this is Park Jung Here, he makes guest appearances with the help of Ben Oreskes and others.

Held annually in late September at Seoul International Park in Koreatown, the Los Angeles Korean Festival often feels like it’s all about Korea.

One day, a Dodgers legend Park Chan Ho He was urging Korean Americans to support the San Diego Padres. Kim Ha-sunLocal cities and provinces in South Korea set up booths promoting delicacies such as fermented squid. (Don’t knock until you try.) Korean celebrity Kim Hung Guk sang and danced as if trying to keep his balance in an earthquake.

But the festival is also a symbol of the growing political power of Koreans and other Asian Americans in Los Angeles and Southern California. Rick Caruso — wearing a pink flower necklace We sat next to a corgi and rode a carriage along Olympic Boulevard. He was one of his two marshals.

His rival, Rep. Karen Bass, Appearing at festivalstaking pictures with Korean community leaders.

To say that Asian-American voters matter in LA is now almost a cliché.The community is the fastest growing ethnic group, accounting for nearly 1 in 10 voters in the city. occupies. Candidates are eyeing — Caruso will be in Historic He Entertainment in Filipinotown on Tuesday and will have conversations with Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who are members of her community, and on Friday the bus will fly to Cathay in Chinatown. The Manor met the residents of her apartment.

“She has a heart for people,” he said King Chang, Chinatown community activist for fair development of buses at her event on Friday. “Caruso just keeps building and he hasn’t built a single affordable home in years.”

The question is, who is winning over the community?

It’s hard to know. Covering Asian Americans is like covering 25 communities at once, each with its own history, culture, and interests.

Said, “It’s a dynamic population.” Paul Mitchell, a political data expert. “Gay Asians on the West Side won’t vote for Caruso.”

But a recent poll by the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Government, co-sponsored by The Times, offers some clues. This shows Caruso leads Bass by a whopping 23 points, 51% to 29%, among the city’s Asian-American voters. Yes the sample size is small. However, even some Bass supporters acknowledge that Caruso’s campaign has made significant inroads into the community.

“Caruso’s campaign has done a great deal of credit for spending so much money targeting voters in Asia, especially with verbalized mailers,” he said. Andrew Murphy, the president of the Asian Democratic Party of LA County, who endorsed Bass. “We welcome this type of effort at any race. …But we also acknowledge that there is a fundamental funding imbalance.”

With a war chest of over $70 million, Caruso simply has the money to advertise in various languages, including Korean. Over the past few months, Caruso’s campaign has spent nearly $10 million on the campaign, prioritizing Latinx and Asian voters, as well as voters in San Fernando his Valley.

He said Caruso’s campaign, and even the carriage march, was important given that many political parties and candidates have historically not done well in meeting their communities in person. Sarah SadwaniAssistant Professor of Political Science at Pomona College, specializing in Asian-American voting behavior.

In an election where voter turnout is as important as persuasion, it’s important to get people who have never voted before to vote, Mitchell said.

But Caruso’s money wasn’t the only thing that moved Asian Americans. His campaign, which focuses on helping small businesses and tackling crime, could work very well in communities, said Sadwani. I feel biased, but a recent survey from Loyola Marymount University found that nearly 80 percent of Asian Americans surveyed would have liked to see more LAPD officers patrolling their neighborhoods. understood.

At Thursday’s press conference, after the fatal stabbing Do Yong Lee in the clothing district Jo Eunnie He called for more police to be deployed in the area. Cho doesn’t live in Los Angeles, but he’s been in the area for nearly 30 years as a clothing manufacturer, but he’s been feeling increasingly unsafe.

“If they [police] Go at least twice a day. I think it’s going to be great,” Cho says. “He has one very easy and simple solution.”

Whether that sentiment can sway Asian Americans into voting for Caruso, or whether Asian American voters will ultimately make a difference remains to be seen. He said it was necessary for Fernando GuerraDirector of Loyola Marymount’s Los Angeles Research Center.

“The only reason he has so little potential is his outreach to the Asian and Latinx community,” Guerra said. “If Caruso is to win, he must get a majority of the Asian votes… otherwise he has no chance.”

state of play

— Discussion Highlights: A second showdown between the mayoral candidates took place this week. That happened when a new Times poll showed a tightening race, and this debate hosted by KNX News was far more exciting than the first. Calling Caruso a liar with unrealistic plans to scale up and so on, she said it sounded good on paper but unrealizable.

“When you lie to people and say you’re going to do something you know well but can’t do, it creates cynicism among voters,” she said to her opponent. have never held public office, but unfortunately you show some of the worst tendencies in what they say about elected officials.”

The rhetorical dagger flew with breakneck speed in the opposite direction as well. Caruso has attempted to characterize this congresswoman as lacking in judgment and showing little of her time in Washington, DC. He also lashed out at Bass for her involvement with Scientology. He said her decision to give a speech at one of the facilities did not reflect much on her integrity as a leader.

“It’s a matter of credibility. It’s about character. It’s a matter of judgment,” said Caruso.

Bass said that in hindsight he would not have gone to the event.

“Certainly, I knew of some of the Scientology abuses,” she said. “I didn’t know the depth of them. I found out later.”

— Dobbs Politics: Abortion and a Los Angeles magazine profile of the 15-year-old Caruso also came up in the debate. It imposes its former position on Caruso.

Caruso, who appeared to claim the article was inaccurate, said he was talking about stem cell research, citing another quote from an article that talked about the government staying out of people’s private lives.

“Los Angeles magazines have and still have a very rigorous fact-checking process.” Ed Liebowitzthe author of the article told The Times on Thursday night.

The subject matter is like an anvil around Caruso’s neck, keeping him away from the centerpieces of his campaign: homelessness, corruption, and public safety. As an example this week, Bass recalled that Caruso pledged his $1 million to support the ballot measure now known as Proposition 1, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

“Has anyone seen a million dollars?” Bass said on Monday. Caruso’s team says he still intends to support the bill, but it’s a reminder of how Bass supporters seem enthused about reproductive rights at this race.

— cavalry coming: Hollywood executive Jeffrey Katzenberg He donated $1 million to Community United for the LA Mayor’s 2022 bus on Wednesday, boosting his total giving to the group to about $1.85 million. The ProBase group has raised almost $5 million since the beginning of the year. A new and separate pro-Bus political action committee led by the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters has raised more than $2 million in donations in recent weeks. This sum pales in comparison to the more than $62 million Caruso has poured into her campaign since jumping into the campaign, and the $6 million her campaign has spent in her final season. To do.

— Publicize it in the Valley: The LA mayoral race is in the spotlight. Bob Hertzberg When Lindsay Horvath The Los Angeles Daily News has “raised rhetoric by criticizing each other’s experience levels and differences” as they battle for seats on the county board of supervisors.

— CD 11 Controversy: of the spectrum Kate Cagle reports Candidate for District 11 on that Council Tracy Park Defended the City of Anaheim in a 2021 lawsuit when black employees sued the city for alleged supervisors’ use of the N-word. “We will not tolerate the use of racist slurs,” Park told Spectrum.

And in the non-campaign news…

— Eviction moratorium lifted: The LA City Council on Tuesday decided to again allow landlords to evict tenants who are behind on rent after nearly three years of COVID-19 emergency restrictions. The longest-running eviction protection can end from 1 February.

quick hit

• who runs the city? yet Eric GarcettiHis confirmation as Indian ambassador is pending a Senate vote, but his appointed to subordinate First U.S. State Department special envoy to link local governments to national foreign policy. Nina Yagian, The 55-year-old has been Los Angeles’ deputy mayor for international affairs under Garcetti since 2017. of Southeast Asian countries.
• The mayor’s latest endorsement: Caruso picked up Endorsed by the Daily News Editorial Board.US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Approved base this week.
• Recommendations for other cities: The Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, Mayor of West Hollywood Pro Tempore Sepi Shine and WeHo City Council John M. Erickson approved Heidi Feldstein Soto Attorney for the City of LA.Council District 11 Candidates Erin Darling got the support of Marianne Williamson.

(If you have an endorsement you would like to flag next week, send it in.)

• Minutes for next week: KNBC will host another televised mayoral debate on Tuesday at 7pm.