Political Empowerment (Part II)

By: Mark Javier

 

Last month, I wrote about the Filipino community’s political engagement in the Chicagoland area. The results of the recent Chicago municipal elections compel me to continue that discussion. For the first time in history, Chicago will have a mayoral runoff election. This is because no candidate received the fifty percent plus one vote to win the mayoral election outright during the February 24 municipal elections.

Incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel received 45.4%, and Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia received 33.8%. This means that the two candidates will face off in a head-to-head election on April 7.

This runoff presents an opportunity for the Asian community, including Filipinos, to flex some political muscle. Both candidates must believe that our community will make a difference in their campaigns. In politics, two major components of making a difference are votes and money.

Since the Asian community represents a relatively small segment of the electorate, garnering voting numbers big enough to matter to either candidate will require significant organization and unity within the Asian community.

This is difficult because within the Asian community itself there are many factions that pledge allegiance to one candidate or the other. These factions have already invested time and resources to the candidates during the general election in February.

Getting supporters of one candidate to withhold their support for the sake of conglomerating political capital is highly unlikely. Ultimately, these divisions will depreciate the Asian community’s ability to mobilize enough political force to capture either candidate’s attention.

On the other hand, despite having divided loyalties between the two candidates, Asians still have ample opportunity to make a financial impact on the race. Both sides will need to increase their campaign activities in the following weeks and Chicago will surely see a heavy helping of campaign advertising.

Television ads, magazine andnewspaper ads, mail pieces, etc. all need to be financed through a campaign fund.

Financial contributions from the Asian community will make a loud statement if enough donations can be generated to have the candidates take notice. However, the source of any funding coming from theAsian community should be made known to the candidates. That way, the Asian community will be given credit for the assistance that either candidate gets from us.

Another resource that the candidates will be looking for is volunteers. Whatever we lack in votes or money, we can compensate for with individuals willing to walk door-to-door for the candidates, host fundraising events, pass out literature, make phone calls, etc. This may be a very effective way to show involvement from the Asian community because it is evidence of the community’s ambition and motivation to join the politic process. Additionally, Asians can be more visible to the candidates and their campaign staffs.

Ideally, I would hope that the leaders in the Asian community would work together to pool our political resources and leverage them to gain the most effective attention from the candidates and other elected leaders. If our community is constantly split on issues and allegiances, we will never have the political capital as a whole to realize the full potential of political enfranchisement.

TheApril 7 runoff election is our chance to show politicians and civic leaders that we have the power to influence campaigns and election results. I hope we do not squander this opportunity.##