Asian Americans Commercial Watch: The Politics Edition

With a few weeks left until the November election, there are more and more political ads on televisions (especially here in California with Meg Whitman spending a record $140 million so far to run for Governor). However, I am always pleasantly surprised to see Asian Americans of all political ideologies and parties running for public office, as well as when I see political advertisements for them on television or the web. Even in California, where Asian Americans make up 12% of the overall population, Asian Americans are not seen as leaders – either in business or in government. So I’m always excited to see advertisements promoting Asian Americans involved and interested in civic leadership. See some political advertisements on the city and state level from John Chiang, Leland Yee, Jane Kim and David Wu, after the jump.

In California, the highest profile Asian American candidate running for public office is State Controller John Chiang, running for re-election. Chiang should have a relatively easy time getting re-elected. He’s done a pretty good job, is popular amongst Democrats and the LA Times recently gave him a pretty decent endorsement:

“There are a lot of things the state should have done differently over the last four years, but choosing a different controller is not one of them; Chiang was the best choice then, and his generally good performance during the last four budget meltdowns makes him the best choice now.”

I would be very surprised if Chiang does not get re-elected. The first Asian American political ad I saw this election cycle was actually for a local California State Senator Leland Yee (representing San Francisco):

Leland Yee: Join the Fight to Save Education

I’ve seen Yee at a few Democratic events, but don’t know him really (and can’t vote for him anyways since I live more than 30 miles south of SF). I do know he is popular in San Francisco, especially in the Chinese community.

However, one local San Francisco candidate I have been following is my friend Jane Kim, who is running for Supervisor of San Francisco, District 6. She’s got a web ad, in conjunction with ABC7 News’ uReport, but most recently, also a cable ad most recently seen during ESPN’s SportsCenter:

Dear SF: Jane Kim is Running for Supervisor

And my final example I’ve seen recently is Congressman David Wu of Oregon. I recently saw him at a fundraiser that a friend of mine organized. As part of the Republican wave to take over the House of Representatives, Wu, a six-term incumbent and the only Taiwanese American (and first Chinese American ever to be elected) in Congress, is battling Republican political newcomer and sports business consultant Rob Cornilles. Wu recently launched this attack ad on Cornilles:

Rob Cornilles’ Bad Ideas — David Wu 2010

A few days later of course, Cornilles launches his own attack ad on Wu. What’s interesting is that Cornilles shows a photo of himself with his family, where you can clearly see that he is married to an Asian woman (Cornilles being white) and his two young smiling sons (according to his website, he has three sons – maybe the third one is the black sheep of the family!). Oregon is only 4% Asian, so getting the “Asian” vote is not something that is going to make a huge difference in this race. In a juxtapose, Congressman Wu is married to a white woman Michelle and has a son and daughter. I don’t think I’ve come across a Congressional race where I’ve seen both candidates in a mixed race Asian and white marriage.

I am sure there are plenty of other television and web ads of Asian American candidates running for public office. Let us know about them by posting a comment and link in this post. Thanks!