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eFeatureSeptember
1, 2002
The Return Of The Sleeping Giant:
Examining The Filipino Vote And
Candidates For Office In 2002
by Albert Lanier
It's official: Andy Anderson needs
your vote! The former Republican strategist and City Managing
Director who is now running as a Democratic candidate for Governor
this election year admitted in an interview with the Hawaii
Filipino Chronicle that, in order to have any chance of winning
the Governor's race, Filipinos have to turn out in numbers to
vote for him.
"I cannot win this race without
the Filipinos," he stated.
Anderson's admission highlights the overall importance
of the Filipino vote during the 2002 elections. What does
that say about Filipino voters? Likely, they will serve as
a "swing vote" helping to give the electoral edge
in victory for a gubernatorial candidate but also that the Filipino
community might be recognized a potential independent vote factor
as an ethnic group.
The Filipino Vote and the 2002
Election
University of Hawaii-West Oahu
history professor and Midweek political columnist Dan Boylan
feels that the
Filipino vote in Hawaii will be a "big factor" in
this year's election because that vote isn't "as well anchored
in
either political party as say the Japanese-American vote
or the Caucasian vote" with Caucasians normally voting
Republican and Japanese-Americans supporting the Democratic
Party.
"Filipinos have been sometimes
tied to personality as
they were with (former Honolulu Mayor) Frank Fasi for
years and years," noted Boylan "Wherever Frank went,
the Filipino vote tended to follow him. He catered to them
and appealed to them and was very popular."
The development of a base of support
among Filipino
voters for Fasi was confirmed by Anderson who, in
addition to later serving as City Managing Director under Fasi
also managed Fasi's successful comeback victory in 1984 over
then Mayor Eileen Anderson.
In '84, according to Anderson, his
electoral strategy for returning Fasi to Honolulu Hale relied
in commingling the Caucasian vote with the Filipino vote. Anderson
and Fasi met with members of the Filipino community and pledged
to name Filipinos to more City and County departments
and positions on a proportional basis to the overall population
than ever before if the Filipino vote would
swing Fasi's way.
Filipinos voted in numbers for Fasi
in '84 and as a consequence, Anderson says, more Filipinos were
made Directors and Deputy Directors of City and County departments
than ever before "for the first time, in the history of
Hawaii."
While Filipinos have supported candidates
like Fasi over
the years, they have and continue to also back candidates of
Filipino ancestry.
"Of course, the Filipino vote
has always been loyal to its own," observed Boylan "I
mean, in districts like Kalihi and Waipahu where there's a big
Filipino vote--Filipino candidates, of course, do very well"
He notes that "statewide, the
Filipinos are not strongly allied with any political party.
Many of them are working class and those who are unionized will
often follow their union endorsements but those who are not
are sort of
up or floating and so they're a constituency that both political
parties and various individuals cater to and feel
are approachable."
This Feature Is 2 Pages Long:
1 2
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