Korean community in Virginia striving to gain political clout

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Nov. (Yonhap) -- The Korean community is striving to make the most use of the close competition in Virginia in the U.S. presidential election as the traditionally conservative state has become a major battleground state due to a recent demographic change.

With just a couple of days left until the presidential election Tuesday, Sen.
Barack Obama is leading his Republican rival John McCain by several percentage
points in public surveys to possibly claim the first victory since 1964 in the
state for any Democratic presidential nominee.
The Asian population grew to about 5 percent and Hispanics accounted for nearly 6
percent in Virginia in 2005, according to statistics from the state government of
Virginia, a sharp rise from 0.3 percent and 1.0 percent in 1970, respectively.
Afro-Americans remained at about 19 percent.
"The IT industry at Reston, Fairfax, called the Second Silicon Valley, and
various research institutions and other related organizations of the Pentagon,
the State Department and other federal government agencies have attracted many
Koreans and other tech-savvy Asians in recent years," said William Won Hwang,
chairman of the Korean-American Association of Northern Virginia.
Hwang said he saw many Korean-Americans moving to Fairfax County from California,
Chicago, Pennsylvania and Maryland to seek technology-related jobs and establish
their own businesses in the growing Korean community in metropolitan Washington,
comprising Virginia, Maryland and the Washington D.C., which now has become the
third biggest in the U.S. only after Los Angeles and New York.
Hwang, a liquor distributor who was just recently inaugurated for a two-year
term, said the growing Korean community and the change of Virginia as a swing
state, gives a great chance for ethnic Koreans to make their voice heard.
He said Korean-American voters account for about one percent of the 5 million
voters in Virginia, with as many Korean residents without citizenship.
"We are running ads in Korean language dailies and radio and television stations
here to encourage more Korean-Americans to cast ballots Tuesday," he said. "We
are also encouraging Korean-American voters to go to the polls at around 6 p.m.
on election day so the local media and politicians could realize the long lines
of Korean voters in front of the polling stations to the last minute of the
voting day."
Up for grabs are the 13 electoral votes, out of the minimum 270 votes, that may
give the slim margin either Obama or McCain needs to win the presidency.
A Mason Dixon Polling & Research survey showed Sunday that Obama is leading
McCain in Virginia by 47 percent to 44 percent with the comparable figures being
47 to 45 a couple of weeks ago.
The close competition made McCain appear at a Springfield parking lot rally
Saturday.
Hillary Clinton held a rally at George Mason University in Fairfax County Sunday
to seek support for Obama. The Illinois senator, himself, is finishing his
two-year campaign at the Prince William County Fair Grounds Monday night in his
second visit to northern Virginia in less than two weeks.
McCain supporters admit Obama's lead in opinion polls, but insist they still have
a chance, citing conservative undecided voters hovering at about 10 percent in
most surveys who they hope will eventually come back to McCain at the polling
stations.
"We need to count all the ballots before we get to know the election outcome,"
says Harold Byon, who works for the Korean community's campaign headquarters for
McCain in Fairfax. "You need to consider the Bradley effect and some other
things, although the Democratic Party is gaining strengths due to the policy
failure by President Bush."
Byon was referring to the current economic meltdown initiated by the subprime
mortgage crisis stemming from the bursting of the housing price bubble.
The Bradley effect refersto the discrepancies between opinion polls and election
outcomes which stretch to several percentage points against African American
candidates.
Byon, a Korean-American lobbyist for the Republican Party, said his organization
has been distributing flyers and visiting Korean marts, churches and gatherings
and placing telephone calls to Korean voters.
"We are persuading all the Korean voters to cast ballots as a means of letting
Americans know Korean and other Asian votes matter in this close competition in
Virginia," he said.
Ryan Kim, a volunteer worker for Obama, meanwhile, expressed confidence that
Obama will win by a comfortable margin, saying the Illinois senator is the only
alternative to replace the unpopular Bush administration which he said failed
both in economy and foreign policy.
The 32-year-old Kim, a Korean-American who quit his job at a Japanese bank in New
York to join the Obama camp two years ago, said he spent most of his time in
Virginia in recent weeks even though he is based in New York.
"I am very proud of doing this because this is a rare opportunity for the
Korean-American community to show off its political power," he said. "I now feel
the power of the Korean-American community within the Obama camp as many of the
Obama people pay keen attention to any movements of the Korean-American community
and even the Korean government."
He noted the remarks by South Korean finance minister, Kang Man-soo, to the
effect that the ongoing economic crisis was caused by the U.S. casino capitalism.
"One of my colleagues at the camp once asked me to find out what the remarks
means and, in what context, Minister Kang made the remarks," he said. "They might
have sought some explanations from me as any direct inquiry to the South Korean
government may cause a diplomatic problem."
In an apparent move to woo Korean and Asian voters, Frank Jannuzi, one of Obama's
key foreign policy advisers, told a gathering of Korean-Americans that "Sen.
Obama will be the first U.S. president who was brought up in Asia and Hawaii."
The state government of Virginia expects that the proportion of Asian Americans
will likely grow dramatically in the coming decades from the current 5 percent
due to rising immigration and births, although their current proportion is less
than 19 percent Afro-Americans and 6 percent Hispanics. Nationally, Latinos
accounted for 15 percent and African Americans 12 percent as of the end of 2005.
A recent National Asian American Survey (NAAS) shows that Asian Americans could
play a key role in the U.S. presidential election.
"Next to Latinos, Asian Americans are the fastest growing share of the U.S.
population, and ... they will likely play a significant role in battleground
states such as Virginia, Nevada and Washington, where they account for 5 percent
or more of the population," it said. "Even in states such as Colorado, Ohio and
Florida, where they are less numerous, Asian Americans may provide the margin of
victory."
The NAAS survey showed different preferences for candidates among Asian
Americans, saying "Two-thirds of Vietnamese Americans support McCain;
Japanese-Americans, Chinese-Americans and Indian- Americans support Obama by more
than a three-to-one ratio; and Korean and Filipino-Americans who are likely
voters also support Obama over McCain, but the gap is much smaller, with ratios
less than 1.4 to 1."
A survey by a Korean language daily for Korean Americans in the metropolitan
Washington D.C. showed that slightly over 60 percent favored Obama.
John Fortier, research fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, said, "You do
see a lot of resources that Obama has put into Virginia, and to good use because
he is ahead in the polls and that will be likely one of the surprises on election
night."
Fortier said it would be "a striking matter for Democrats to be able to win in
Virginia" as President Bush won by over 8 percentage points in the two previous
elections there.
He noted the election of Democrats, Tim Kaine and Jim Webb, to Virginia's
governor and senator, respectively, in recent years.
"Some people say that Virginia is the South, but the South doesn't start until
you drive 30 or 40 miles into Virginia (from Washington D.C.)," he said. "It
doesn't really begin at the (Potomac) River where much of Northern Virginia looks
like Philadelphia or New York or Boston in terms of the education levels and
politics of its residents."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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