| | | Our Vision, Our Voice, Our Future | Issue 5: November 26, 2008 | |
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| Dear [[First_Name]], Happy Thanksgiving! Here at APIAVote we are thankful for the phenomenal effort output by our numerous partners & volunteers nationwide in getting out and protecting the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) vote. AAPIs turned out in unprecendented numbers across the country, especially in states like Nevada, Virginia, Oregon, Washington, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.. We believe that electoral enagement is our opportunity to make our voices heard. And the hard work of our local leaders towards increasing the AAPI vote and voice will only serve to strengthen our community's capacity to impact public policies that will help to transform the quality of life for our neighborhoods and families. Again, Thank you to all to our local leaders , coalition and organizational partners and volunteers. As we approach a new year and the thoughts of "what's next" occupy our mind, listen in on our Leadership Briefing conference calls on the presidential and congressional transition, attend our briefing during inaugural week in DC, submit your resume to NCAPA to be sent to the Administration personnel staff, or submit your video footage to our video contest. There are many ways to stay involved as voting is just one way of many to be civically engaged as AAPIs. | |
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| Save the Date
Moving the Dream Forward: Briefing on Elections, Transition & Policy Join APIAVote in Washington, D.C. during Inaugural Week! APIAVote partners with NCAPA in hosting "Moving the Dream Forward" . The program will  consist of a morning briefing that will help our communities coordinate and coalesce, as we again visit the theme of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. On the eve of the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama, APIAVote will be hosting a debrief on the 2008 Election; contextualize and explain the transition process; help frame the AAPI policy agenda(s) as we move forward with the new White House, the agencies, and a new Congress; and host a panel and discussion on how we work together to move a progressive AAPI policy agenda forward.
Register online now: www.apiavote.org/moving-the-dream/registration
| Candidate Roundup
AAPI candidates made gains during the November elections. Many incumbents held onto their seats, while a few new faces joined their AAPI colleagues elected to office. For a full list of wins and lossses please visit http://www.asianam.org/apacandidate.htm (independant website; not affliated with APIAVote).
Congressman Mike Honda (D, CA-15) held onto his seat with a solid 72% of the votes as did Doris Matsui (D, CA-5) with 75% of the votes in her district. Colorado's Hank Eng (D, CO-6) lost his race with only 40% of votes with his opponent Mike Coffman (R, CO-6) winning 60%. In a closely contested & highly publicized race, Ashwin Madia (D, MN-3) lost with 41% of votes with his opponent, Erik Pausel (R, MN-3) winning 49%. Ohio welcomes former state senator Steve Austria (R, OH-7) who won his race with 58% of the votes. In Hawaii, Mazie Hirono (D, HI-2) will serve another term with 76% of the votes. Oregon's David Wu (D, OR-1) won his race with 72% of the votes.
APIAVote congratulates the efforts of all candidates at the local, state and national levels. We hope that all our AAPI elected officials continue to serve the needs of our community through legislation and political advocacy. We look forward to working with our electeds to increase the political and civic participation of our community. | Transition: Leadership Briefing Calls
Over the past couple weeks APIAVote has been hosting nationwide conference calls on the topic of the presidential and congressional transition. The calls are meant to familiarize and demystify the Transition process of the Administration and new Congress. These calls featured guests who will explained the different processes and capacities in which the AAPI communities can participate and involve ourselves. For full .mp3 downloads of the call and to sign up for the next call to be announced, visit www.apiavote.org/transition
 Our first call on November 12 featured guest Maria Echaveste of U.C. Berkeley School of Law's Warren Institute for Race, Ethnicity, & Diversity. Echaveste, a senior fellow explained the Talent Bank project as an effort to identify qualified diverse people who they could recommend to the personnel team. Their team will winnow down the resumes based on their expertise and experience as a service to the new Administration.
She also fielded questions about what positions would most impact the AAPI communitity, how to apply in a way that would be noticed by the personnel team, what to expect once you've applied and more. Download the .mp3 file to listen.
 On November 18th, our guests were Bob Nash, former Clinton White House Director of Presidential Personnel and Maria Haley former Clinton White House Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel.
Haley broke down the basics of the positions available and what to expect from the transition team the first few weeks. Nash talked about how the AAPI community had to leverage its networks and talents to get more AAPIs into the administration.
Haley and Nash also took questions about what to highlight in your resume, preparations in addition to submitting resumes, expectations after you've submitted your resume, strategies for getting noticed and more. Download the .mp3 file to listen.
| NCAPA Call for Resumes
The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans,  founded in 1996, is a coalition of twenty-five Asian Pacific American organizations around the country. Based in Washington D.C, NCAPA serves to represent the interests of the greater AA and NHPI communities and to provide a national voice for AA and NHPI issues.
In order to ensure diversity and inclusion at all levels of government, various minority and civil rights organizations are recommending individuals for positions within the new Administration. In that spirit, NCAPA will be embarking on a process to recommend qualified candidates of Asian American (AA) and Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander (NHPI) descent to certain positions within the new Administration.
Resumes are accepted on a rolling basis through aapitransition08@gmail.com
Further details can be found here: www.apiavote.org/ncapa-resumes | Asian Americans on the Obama-Biden Transition Team
 APIAVote would like to applaud the President-elect Obama and Vice-President Elect Biden for the selection of numerous Asian Americans to their transition team staff, agengy review teams and policy working groups.
Below is a list of senior level Asian Americans on the transition team: - Ginger Lew, (Chinese American) Transition Team Cluster Lead (Commerce, SBA)
- Chris Lu (Chinese American), named as Transition Executive Director; (President-elect Obama's Legislative Director (Senate))
- Nick Rathod (Indian American) Director of Intergovernmental Affairs
- Peter Rouse (of Japanese American descent), named to Co-Chair Transition Team; (President-elect Obama's Chief of Staff (Senate))
- Sonal Shah (Indian American), named to Transition Advisory Board; (Former APIAVote Board Member, Google Foundation director, Global Economic Development)
- Jeanette Takemura (Japanese American) Transtion Tream (Health and Human Services)
A full list of staff and members of the agency review teams and policy working groups can be found at: http://change.gov/learn/transition |
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| It's Not Too Late!
 If you took video footage of Get-Out-The-Vote or election day activity, you can still submit it to APIAVote's "Lights Camera Action, Vote!" contest. Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote & Center for Asian American Media wants you to help us - and AAPIs all over the nation - know what civic engagement looks like in your AAPI community. We want you to tell the stories of AAPIs new to the voting process and their experiences. We want to tell future AAPI voters why voting is important and how high the stakes are. One randomly selected entrant will receive $100.
Submit entries to alvina@apiavote.org by November 30th. Contest rules can be found here: http://www.apiavote.org/contest-rules | |
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