The 80-20 Initiative, officially the 80-20 Political Action Committee, Incorporated, is a national
political organization
A political organization is any organization that involves itself in the political process, including political parties, non-governmental organizations, and special interest advocacy groups. Political organizations are those engaged in poli ...
seeking equal opportunity for
Asian Americans
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...
through a
bloc vote: to unite 80% of the Asian American voters behind the
presidential candidate
A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example:
* to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs.
* t ...
who best represents the interests of Asian Americans. Hence, the name, 80-20. It claims to be a non-partisan and an independent swing voting bloc.
History
The "
Asia Gate" of 1996-97, which was an alleged effort by the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
to influence domestic
American politics
The politics of the United States function within a framework of a constitutional federal republic and presidential system, with three distinct branches that Separation of powers, share powers. These are: the United States Congress, U.S. Congre ...
, sowed the seed for Asian American political empowerment. Frustrated by what he viewed to be the political exploitation of Asian American’s naïveté as evidenced by “Asia Gate”, Dr.
S.B. Woo, former
Lieutenant Governor of Delaware
The lieutenant governor of Delaware is the second ranking executive officer of the U.S. state of Delaware. Lieutenant governors are elected for a term of four years in the same general election as the U.S. president and take office the following ...
, set out to organize support to prevent its recurrence. In the foreword of the book, ''Click on Democracy'', he related his disappointment with the media, the
Democratic and
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
Parties for misrepresenting and misusing Asian Americans, and his despair over the Asian American community’s inaction and its failure to defend itself, rooted in its lack of political maturity and cohesiveness.
As a former politician, Dr. S. B. Woo believed that in order to defend themselves, Asian Americans must develop enough political clout, to reward politicians who cared for their rightful concerns and to punish those who didn't. To communicate effectively with all Asian Americans and to forge a bloc vote, he harnessed the power of the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
. Dr. S. B. Woo, together with several other Asian American leaders, including Dr.
Larry Y. Ho Professor of two
endowed Chair
A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are of ...
s at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
;
Henry S. Tang, Chairman of the
Committee of 100; and Dr.
Chang-Lin Tien
Chang-lin Tien (; July 24, 1935 – October 29, 2002) was a Chinese-American professor of mechanical engineering and university administrator. He was the seventh chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley (1990–1997), and in that ...
, Chancellor of the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, compiled an
e-mail
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...
list of 300 like-minded individuals who donated $50,000 to pursue their vision. On September 26–27, 1998, in a meeting in Foster City, California, 80-20 was born.
Acquiring political clout
Led by Dr. S. B. Woo who provided the organization with his political acumen, supported by unpaid volunteer Board members and officers, and armed with an e-mail list of voters which grew to 700,000, 80-20 claims to have organized the Asian American communities to achieve swing bloc votes for its endorsed candidates to win equal opportunity and justice for all Asian Americans. 80-20 was rated one of the US's two most effective
cyberspace
Cyberspace is a concept describing a widespread interconnected digital technology. "The expression dates back from the first decade of the diffusion of the internet. It refers to the online world as a world 'apart', as distinct from everyday rea ...
political organizations in the 2000 election. Any US citizen or permanent resident, upon paying their membership dues, can become a member of 80-20. Currently, 80-20 has about 3,150 members.
Endorsement of presidential candidates
80-20 holds its Endorsement Convention in the year of a presidential election, after candidates for both the Republican and Democratic Party have been determined. Each delegate to the convention is an unpaid volunteer who pledges in writing to advocate for 80-20’s endorsed candidate. The delegates are one third each of Democrats, Republicans, and
Independents, all elected by dues-paying members, to ensure an objective nonpartisan deliberation.
In the 2004 and 2008 elections, 80-20's main criterion for endorsement was the response to 80-20's questionnaire by the presidential candidates. In both years, while the Democratic candidates for President answered 80-20's questionnaire with all affirmative responses (after 80-20 revised the questions by request of the candidates), the Republican candidates did not respond to the questionnaire at all. 80-20 had initially issued a "call to action" to defeat Obama, citing "almost farcical reasons why he would not reply to OUR questionnaire". The call to action has since been deleted from the organization's sites.
80-20 has endorsed the Democratic candidate in the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
Delivering swing bloc votes
Once 80-20 endorses a candidate, it organizes Asian American bloc votes for its endorsed candidate, relying partly on volunteers, ethnic media radio, print and TV ads; and mostly on its e-mail communication with its 700,000 Asian American supporters, their families and their friends.
Breaking the glass ceiling
Based on publicly available government statistics, Asian Americans have the lowest chance of rising to management when compared with blacks, Hispanics and women in spite of having the highest
educational attainment Educational attainment is a term commonly used by statisticians to refer to the highest degree of education an individual has completed as defined by the US Census Bureau Glossary.
See also
*Academic achievement
*Academic degree
*Bachelor's degree
...
.
80-20 compiled these data which has been verified in writing by the Chief Statistician of EEOC, Ronald Edwards, into charts; and on September 6, 2006, 80-20 took out a full page Ad in ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' in effort to educate the general public.
Subsequently, the ad was read into the ''
Congressional Record
The ''Congressional Record'' is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record Inde ...
'' by Senator
Tom Carper
Thomas Richard Carper (born January 23, 1947) is an American politician and former military officer serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Delaware, having held the seat si ...
of Delaware.
Executive Order 11246
Executive Order 11246, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 24, 1965, established requirements for non-discriminatory practices in hiring and employment on the part of U.S. government contractors. It "prohibits federal contractors a ...
signed into law in 1965, requires
equal employment opportunity
Equal employment opportunity is equal opportunity to attain or maintain employment in a company, organization, or other institution. Examples of legislation to foster it or to protect it from eroding include the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity ...
and prohibits
discrimination
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
. This law has been enforced for all except Asian Americans, as evidence by the low
glass ceiling
A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to women, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents a given demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy.Federal Glass Ceiling Commission''Solid Investments: Making Full ...
still hanging over this ethnic minority. Prior to election 2008, in its effort to shatter this glass ceiling, 80-20 obtained written commitments from nine of the eleven Democratic Presidential candidates, including then Senator
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
and Senator
Joe Biden, to enforce EO 11246 for All Asian Americans.
[“President Barack Obama has pledged to break the glass ceiling for APAs”.](_blank)
80-20 Initiative.net. Retrieved 2009-09-05.[“Vice President Joe Biden has pledged to break the glass ceiling for APAs”.](_blank)
80-20 Initiative.net. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
Asian American judges
While Asian Americans make up 5% of the US population in 2008, only eight of the 867 (less than 1%)
Article III Federal judges Federal judges are judges appointed by a federal level of government as opposed to the state/provincial/local level.
United States
A US federal judge is appointed by the US President and confirmed by the US Senate in accordance with Article 3 of ...
are Asian Americans.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, to remedy the underrepresentation of Asian Americans in the Federal judiciary, 80-20 sent out a questionnaire to all the presidential candidates. Senator Obama and Senator Biden responded and promised in writing to increase the appointment of Asian American federal judges.
By June 2010, President Obama has nominated six Asian Americans to a seat on the U.S. District Court, including Judge
Jacqueline Nguyen
Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Nguyen ( vi, Nguyễn Hồng Ngọc; born May 25, 1965) is an American lawyer who serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She previously served as a United States d ...
and
Dolly M. Gee for the
, and Judges
Edward M. Chen
Edward Milton Chen (born January 20, 1953) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and former United States magistrate judge of the same court.
Early life and educati ...
and
Lucy H. Koh for the
,
Edmond Chang for the
, and Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi for
United States District Court for the District of Hawaii
The United States District Court for the District of Hawaii (in case citations, D. Haw.) is the principal trial court of the United States federal courts, United States Federal Court System in the U.S. state, state of Hawaii. The court's terri ...
.
On October 6, 2009, President Obama nominated Judge
Denny Chin
Denny Chin (陳卓光; born April 13, 1954) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, based in New York City. He was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court f ...
to a seat on the
U.S. Courts of Appeals
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal judiciary. The courts of appeals are divided into 11 numbered circuits that cover geographic areas of the United States and hear appeals fr ...
in the Second Circuit, the first Asian American Appeals court judge to be nominated since 1996, more than 12 years ago. This was followed on February 24, 2010 by the nomination of Goodwin H. Liu to a seat on the U.S. Courts of Appeals in the Ninth Circuit.
As of December 18, 2010, all of the above nominations have been confirmed by the Senate except for the nominations of Edward Chen and Goodwin Liu.
Edward Chen was confirmed on May 10, 2011 to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
On May 25, 2011, in a letter to President Barack Obama, Goodwin Liu withdrew his nomination for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Anti-racial attack
In the 2002
primary election
Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...
, there were two racist attacks against Asian American candidates by their political opponents. As a result, 80-20 passed a resolution, aiming to stop such attacks.
Local chapters
80-20 currently has a strategy to expand its influence and to encourage Asian Americans to be involved in local politics by establishing local chapters. Two local chapters have been established recently: the Detroit-Ann Arbor Area Chapter and the Great Washington DC Area (DC, MD, and VA) Chapter.
DCAPAC
/ref>
References
External links
*
{{authority control
1998 establishments in the United States
Asian-American organizations
Organizations established in 1998
Political advocacy groups in the United States
United States political action committees