80-20 National Asian American PAC, Inc.
www.80-20initiative.net
December 22, 2015
Via Priority Mail
The Honorable xxxx xxxx
Dear xxxxx:
The strength of America lies partly in individuals like you. You know full well the punishing nature of a presidential campaign and the immense challenge in the White House were you to become our president. Nevertheless, you offered your body and soul. As a citizen, I wish to pay you the deepest respect.
I am writing on behalf of The 80-20 Initiative (henceforth 80-20) to inquire your views on Asian Pacific American (APA) concerns. A questionnaire is enclosed. I hope you will endorse our aspirations promptly and unequivocally.
80-20 is by far the largest national APA political organization with an e-mail list of over 180,000 supporters. It is nonpartisan prior to endorsement and is dedicated to winning equal opportunity & justice for APAs through a SWING bloc vote. However, once 80-20 has endorsed a candidate, we become partisan.[1] We have used our emails, ethnic cable TV and radio to independently but most effectively support the endorsed candidate. Our endorsement criteria are objective. They are based on a candidate's response to our questionnaire and the record of service to the APA community by a candidate's political party in the past 4 years.
80-20 has the record of delivering four consecutive bloc votes in the years of 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012. The following are exit polls published by New York Times. Note that Asian Americans favored the Republican presidential candidate in 1996 before 80-20 came on the scene in 1998. Afterwards, however, none of the GOP candidates were willing to answer 80-20's questionnaire. As a result, 80-20 endorsed a Democratic candidate in all four subsequent presidential elections, delivering large bloc votes. However, 80-20 is not tied to supporting Democrats.
How 80-20 changed Asian American voting in recent presidential elections:
|
1996
80-20 not yet in existence
Clinton 43%
/
Dole 48%
/others 8%
|
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2000
Gore endorsed:
+13 point gain
Gore 54%
/
Bush 41%
/others 4%
|
|
2004
Kerry endorsed:
+12 point gain
Kerry 56%
/
Bush 44%
/others 0%
|
|
2008
Obama endorsed:
+27 point gain
Obama 62%
/
McCain 35%
/others 3%
|
|
2012
Obama endorsed:
+47 point gain
Obama 73%
/
Romney 26%
/others 1%
|
80-20 expects to deliver an even larger bloc vote to the candidate that we will endorse in 2016. We anticipate achieving our namesake and delivering 80% of the 3 million Asian American votes to the candidate endorsed by us.
See for yourself 80-20's effectiveness in a primary. Click on
http://www.80-20initiative.net/success/media_mainstream_080215cnn.asp
to see what CNN's Anderson Cooper had to say about its impact on Super Tuesday of 2008. In any Republican primary of many candidates, 80-20's bloc vote can easily make a decisive difference.
Political considerations aside, helping an American underclass achieve equal opportunity in the workplaces for their adults; in college admissions for their children; not to be racially profiled; and to attaining an equitable proportion of federal judges are the right things to do. You will just be honoring your pledge of allegiance to the flag that ends with " ... with liberty and justice for all." That is what our questionnaire is all about.
Sincerely,
Kathleen To
President (2007-2008) and Treasurer,
cc: Board of Directors
[1] 80-20 endorses the general election candidate at an Endorsement Convention that consists of equal numbers of Republican, Democratic, and Independent delegates. During the primaries, 80-20's Board decides on any endorsements. 80-20's board members are pledged to
withhold support from any primary candidates who have NOT affirmatively responded to our questionnaire, and we urge our supporters to do the same. For more information, please see 80-20's bylaws, Article 7, "Protocol Regarding Presidential Elections of Our Nation," at
http://www.80-20initiative.net/about/bylaws.asp#7
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80-20's questionnaire begins
80-20 National Asian American PAC, Inc.
www.80-20initiative.net
December 22, 2015
Presidential Candidate Questionnaire for xxxxx
"With liberty and justice for all." Thus ends our pledge of allegiance to the flag with a ringing commitment to all citizens. Unfortunately, liberty and justice remain an unrealized dream for Asian Americans. Asian Americans still yearn for equal opportunity and equal justice, which translate to four major issues:
(1) The Glass Ceiling
Based on publicly available government statistics, Asian Americans have almost the least opportunity to enter management when compared with whites, blacks, Hispanics and women in spite of having the highest educational attainment. While the situation has improved significantly from the last four to eight years, we are still a long way from achieving equal opportunity.[1] See the charts below.
[1] Before President Obama's election in 2008, Asian Americans had the worst chance of entering management among
all
groups across private industry, universities, and the Federal government. We raised the same concerns to then-Senator Obama during the 2008 primary season, and he responded with all "yeses" to our 2008 questionnaire.
(2) Federal Judicial Representation
While Asian Americans are 5% of our nation's population and 5.5% of our legal profession, we are only 2.86 % of our Level III Federal judges. While this is greatly improved from eight years ago, we look to the next President to achieve full equal opportunity for Asian Americans in this field.
[1]
[1] President Obama has tripled the number of Asian American judges.
(3) Discrimination in College Admissions
Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade performed rigorous analyses on the vast "National Study of College Experience" (NSCE) database and released the empirical findings in a 2009 book. According to his study, to receive equal consideration by elite colleges, Asian Americans must outperform Whites by 140 points, Hispanics by 280 points, Blacks by 450 points in SAT (Total 1600). His study confirmed the grassroots suspicions of many Asian Americans, that just like there is a glass ceiling in the workplace for Asian Americans, there is also a glass ceiling on Asian Americans in college admissions. (See chart below).
(4) Racial Profiling
Recently, Department of Justice law enforcement officials arrested and charged Chinese American citizens with espionage, and then later dropped those charges owing to weak evidence, including the recent cases of Drs. Sherry Chen (National Weather Service) and Xi Xiaoxing (Physics Chair at Temple University). Along with other organizations and public officials, 80-20 has called for the Department of Justice to independently investigate whether there is a pattern of racial profiling against Chinese and Asian Americans.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[1]
President Obama has tripled the number of Asian American judges.
Therefore,
we, Asian Pacific Americans,wish to know your answers to the following questions:
(1) If elected, will you issue a directive to the Department of Labor asking it to focus on enforcing Executive Order 11246 on behalf of Asian Americans including the usage of debarment for persistent violators? In the past similar efforts have already been made on behalf of women and other minorities with remarkable success (see Chart 1).
(2) If elected, will you issue an Executive Order asking the federal agencies to promote qualified Asian Americans to Senior Executive Service?
(3) If elected, will you make it a top priority of your Administration to
nominate qualified Asian Americans to serve as Article III life-tenured federal judges, whenever such vacancies are available? These include the Federal District Courts, Courts of Appeal, and the Supreme Court.
(4) If elected, will you be willing to make a public statement in your first year in office that it is difficult for you to conceive that on the average Asian Am students admitted to first-rate colleges is holistically so much worse than the white, Hispanic and black students admitted that the Asian Americans student will need to score 140 point higher than whites, 270 points higher than Hispanics and 450 points higher than blacks in a 1600 point SAT scoring system to have equal chance to be admitted?
(5) If elected, and if the Supreme Court bans the use of race as a factor in college admissions, will you direct the Department of Education to withhold federal funding from colleges that continue to use race in college admissions?
(6) If elected, in your 3rd year as our President, will you host a meeting at the White House to review with a group of Asian American national leaders, put together jointly by 80-20 and your administration, the progress on the three issues above: equal opportunity in the workplace; equal opportunity in federal judicial appointments; and equal opportunity in college admissions?
(7) If elected, will you direct your Attorney General to conduct an independent investigation of the wrongly prosecuted cases of Drs. Sherry Chen, and Xiaoxing Xi, and to diligently continue this investigation if it has already been initiated?
My answer to Question 1 above is (Yes/No) ______________
My answer to Question 2 above is (Yes/No) ______________
My answer to Question 3 above is (Yes/No) ______________
My answer to Question 4 above is (Yes/No) ______________
My answer to Question 5 above is (Yes/No) ______________
My answer to Question 6 above is (Yes/No) ______________
My answer to Question 7 above is (Yes/No) ______________
Signature: ___________________ DATE: ________________
( )
Respectfully submitted by The 80-20 PAC, Inc.
Please email a signed copy to Kathleen To, President (2007-2008) and Treasurer,
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